Taliban annuls divorces; forces women back to toxic-abusive marriages

Kabul: After the fall of Kabul and the return of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the extreme Islamic administration has been forcing divorced women to return to their abusive husbands, Agence France-Presse reports.

The Taliban, who promised on its return that it would become more liberal in the case of women's rights, keeps to an "austere interpretation of Islam and has imposed severe restrictions on women there, which were categorised by the United Nations as "gender-based apartheid", AFP writes.

A UN mission in Afghanistan had inferred that nine in 10 women in Afghanistan are subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence from their partner. AFP narrates stories of women being beaten, bones fractured, hairs pulled out etc. There were instances where women fled away from their husbands, taking their children with them and going into hiding. Some women, who are mothers with daughters, fear for their own lives as well as their girl children, who are under threat of being married to Taliban members. Divorce is more taboo than abuse, while the Taliban never forgive women who part with their husbands.

According to AFP, women lawyers in the state told the news agency that the Taliban annulled many marriages and dragged the women back to their toxic abusive husbands.

The previous US-backed government here had facilitated divorce in the needed case, and the divorce rates kept rising steadily in some Afghan cities. There are some gains in women's rights that were largely limited to education and employment, AFP writes.

Once, women blamed their fate for what happened to them but realised the fact and started separating from toxic husbands after awareness, a women lawyer who handled more than 100 divorce cases earlier told AFP.

She said that Islam permits divorce when a marriage becomes void of harmony. "When there is no harmony left in a husband and wife relationship, even Islam permits a divorce," AFP quoted her.

Under the US-backed administration, there were special family courts, which heard divorce cases, run by women judges and lawyers. But the new Taliban regime had made the justice system entirely run by males, destroying everything catered to women's rights.

According to the mentioned lawyer, the Taliban government limits divorces when the husband is a drug addict or has left the country. In cases of domestic violence or a husband does not agree to divorce, courts never grant it, she added.

AFP reports that the nationwide network of shelters and services, which supported women, was destroyed by the new regime, while the Ministry of Women's Affairs and the Human Rights Commission were dismantled.

A Taliban official told AFP the authorities would look into such cases where previously divorced women were being forced to return to their ex-husbands.

When mentioned women being forced back into abusive marriages, a Taliban official told AFP that the administration would examine such cases. If it receives such complaints, it will probe the matter according to Sharia, the spokesperson for the Taliban Supreme Court said. It was the usual lukewarm response from the administration.