By Matin Mehrab and Freshta Ghani
Last week, Sudabah and her husband were stopped at a Taliban checkpoint while riding a motorbike in the western city of Herat.
The Taliban asked them to show their marriage certificate. When the couple explained that they did not have their marriage certificate with them, the Taliban detained them and demanded they call witnesses who could testify that they are a couple.
They were released only after Sudabah’s father and father-in-law arrived with their ID cards.
In January, the Taliban ordered restaurants and coffee shops in Herat not to serve women who arrive without a mahram, a close male relative, but no such restrictions used to apply to couples. But new rules have recently been introduced. An owner of a restaurant in Herat city told Zan Times that new regulations regarding the need to immediately produce marriage certifications and ID cards were announced verbally two weeks ago by the Taliban’s directorate of vice and virtue. ““If any restaurant disobeys, it will be closed, the directorate of vice and virtue has warned,”” he said.
Earlier in August, Mahbuba, her husband and their daughter experienced the result of those rule changes when they went to a restaurant to dine together.
“We went out for dinner, but as we stepped into the restaurant, the manager approached us and asked for our marriage certificate,” Mahbuba recounts in a phone interview with Zan Times. “Since we didn’t have our certificate with us, we had to leave.”
They visited a second restaurant nearby. “The restaurant receptionist requested that women and men eat in separate rooms if they do not have their marriage certificate for inspection.”
The regulations are being implemented in many public spaces in different cities. Zan Times has spoken to women in Herat, Nangarhar, and Balkh provinces who confirmed facing similar restrictions.
Saanga, an aid worker in eastern Nangarhar province, says that she goes to work with her brother and they always keep their ID cards handy. “A few days ago, I went to the doctor with my brother; the Taliban stopped us and asked about our relationship. My brother said, ‘She is my sister,’” Saanga recounts. “They demanded our ID cards, and we were allowed to leave only after we both showed IDs.”
The new regulations are causing concern as very few marriages are officially registered in Afghanistan, and few couples have marriage certificates. Until 2017 only two-thirds of the population had a national ID card. According to the World Bank, Afghanistan has the widest gender gap in ID ownership: 52 percent of women versus only six percent of men lack IDs.
Women across the country are frightened to leave their homes, especially after it was revealed that the Taliban imprisoned women for “moral crime” or travelling while not accompanied by male chaperones. A new documentary by Ramita Navai, a British-Iranian producer, shows a women’s prison where 90 women were imprisoned. Some women featured in the documentary say the Taliban pressured them to marry their members in exchange for freedom.
Fatima, a teacher in Balkh, says that the Taliban stops city passenger vehicles and asks women where their mahram is?
A few weeks ago, when Fatima’s husband was at work, she had to go to a funeral that required two rides. “In the evening, when I was returning home, I was stopped at a checkpoint, and a young Talib asked me why I was alone and where my mahram was,” she told Zan Times in a WhatsApp voice message. “He had a gun and I couldn’t argue with him. But another Talibab intervened and told him to let me go because it was getting dark.”
Fatima says her students are hopeless and do not see a bright future for themselves. “I tell them, “Girls, the situation will not remain like this. We will fight back because rights are not given; we must take our rights.’”
Names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees.
