Every week brings reports of more and more teenage girls and women dying by suicide, often because of domestic violence and the ending of support systems by the Taliban. On the weekend, residents in Parwan and Faryab provinces told Zan Times that two more females died: a 15-year-old girl in Jabal Saraj district of Parwan province and a 27-year-old woman in Maimana city, the capital of Faryab province.
A source from Faryab province, who asked not to be named, tells Zan Times that the young woman, who lived in Police District 1 of Maimana, took her own life by eating rat poison on Sunday, October 30.
“The woman’s name is Farida, and she was the mother of a boy. She quarreled with her in-laws and after that, she ingested poisonous medications and killed herself,” says another resident to Zan Times.
A day earlier, a teenager died by suicide in the centre of Jabal Saraj district of Parwan province. “The girl was 15 years old and she hanged herself in her bedroom using her chador and died,” a source tells Zan Times. This source did not share more information about the motive and cause of the girl’s suicide.
Faizur Rahman, head of criminal investigation of Taliban police in Parwan, confirmed the death of this girl to the media.
In the past year, the number of suicides in Afghanistan have increased, especially among women as the Taliban have imposed ever-more stringent restrictions on their activities and movement, including the closure of schools. The Taliban have dismantled the ministry of women’s affairs and the Independent Human Rights Commission, thus wiping out systems that tracked and helped women dealing with domestic violence, including the shelter system.
