The strict restrictions imposed by the Taliban, combined with widespread poverty and economic hardships, have led to a sharp rise in domestic violence and suicides among girls and women in Badakhshan Province. Residents of Badakhshan report that three years after the Taliban seized power and denied girls the right to education, incidents of domestic violence, forced and underage marriages, and suicides among women have multiplied several times compared to the previous government.
One resident, a longtime human rights activist in Badakhshan, who wishes to remain anonymous due to security threats from the Taliban, told the Hasht-e Subh Daily that violence against women and suicides among girls has surged by approximately 80%. He attributes the rise to the closure of schools and universities, along with the Taliban’s strict restrictions on women, particularly enforced by the Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Badakhshan and its districts.
Some residents have voiced concern about the increasing domestic violence and suicides among women and girls, calling on the international community to pressure the Taliban to reopen schools and universities for girls. They also urge the creation of job opportunities for women who previously worked in both government and private sectors. These residents point out that the absence of organizations supporting women has worsened the situation, contributing to higher rates of domestic violence, forced marriages, and even suicides since the Taliban returned to power.
Meanwhile, several schoolgirls and female students in the districts of Baharak, Shuhada, Yaftal, Kishim, and Tagab told the Hasht-e Subh Daily that, since the closure of schools and the enforcement of Taliban restrictions, many have been forced into marriages against their will.
Suraya, a sixth-grade student from Tagab district, shared her personal experience: “When the Taliban closed our schools, my sister was forced to marry. My father told her, who was in eighth grade at the time, that the Taliban wouldn’t reopen schools and she had to marry a Taliban soldier from our village. Due to our poor economic situation, my father felt he had no choice but to arrange the marriage. However, the day after her engagement, my sister committed suicide by ingesting rat poison. Now, her former fiancé wants to marry me, but this time my father refused.”
Suraya, who once attended school with her sister and had hopes for their future, is now devastated by her sister’s death. “When we were going to school, we studied hard with the dream of both becoming doctors and serving the women of our village. Sadly, the school closures and my sister’s death have deeply affected me. I’m afraid her former fiancé will try to force me into marriage.”
Now living with her family in Fayzabad City, Suraya expresses a simple plea: for the Taliban to reopen schools for girls. She urges the group to lift its restrictions on girls and women, allowing them the same right to education as boys, because Afghanistan desperately needs educated women and girls.
Taliban’s Strict Restrictions and Women’s Suicides
Domestic violence, forced and underage marriages, along with the ban on education and strict Taliban restrictions, are major factors driving the rise in suicides among girls and women in Badakhshan Province.
Several women’s rights activists, who operate covertly in Fayzabad, the provincial capital, told Hasht-e Subh Daily that suicide rates among women have surged since the Taliban came to power. They explained that as men in families face unemployment, domestic violence and forced marriages of daughters have become more prevalent. Some girls, resisting forced marriages and fleeing their homes, are now imprisoned in Taliban jails.
In a recent case, the Taliban’s Court of Appeal in Badakhshan sentenced 14 girls from the districts of Yaftal, Argo, and Fayzabad to six months to one year in prison for attempting suicide. The sentencing took place in a public session attended by court officials and the girls’ relatives.
Statistics published by Hasht-e Subh Daily indicate that from March 2024 to the present, at least ten people in Badakhshan have taken their own lives due to economic hardship, poverty, sexual assault, and domestic violence, exacerbated by the Taliban’s discriminatory policies. Recently, a 22-year-old girl from the Shuhada district ended her life on September 25 by consuming poison.
Sources told Hasht-e Subh Daily that the girl, the daughter of a former soldier, had been engaged to a boy she loved for over a year. However, she took her own life after enduring repeated sexual advances from a Taliban member named Ikramuddin, who also lives in the same district.
A relative of the girl, speaking anonymously, said that her father had repeatedly sought help from Taliban authorities, both in the district and in Kabul, but no one responded to his pleas. “This girl, whose fiancé is in Iran, wanted to travel there with her father to get married. When Ikramuddin found out, he went to their house and threatened to kill the entire family if she tried to leave. Unable to escape this situation, she took her own life,” the relative explained.
Local Taliban officials in Badakhshan deny the increasing rates of domestic violence, forced marriages, and suicides among girls and women. Qari Aminullah Tayeeb, the Taliban’s deputy governor in Badakhshan, stated, “According to the Supreme Leader’s decree, no one is allowed to perform forced marriages. Anyone who does so will face serious consequences. The rates of suicide and forced marriages in Badakhshan are not high.” He added that local Taliban officials are addressing cases of violence against women in the province.
Despite these denials, residents of Badakhshan continue to express concerns over the rise in domestic violence and suicides. Over the past three years, the Taliban have shut down all educational institutions for girls above the sixth grade and banned women from working in non-governmental and private sectors, worsening the situation for women in Afghanistan.
You can read the Persian version of this daily report here:
باشندهگان بدخشان: با سلطه طالبان خودکشی در میان زنان افزایش یافته است | روزنامه ۸صبح
