Locked in suffering: Taliban’s stance on divorce leaves Afghan women in despair
During three years of marriage, Karima* endured constant abuse and humiliation from her drug-addicted husband, Ali. In the spring of 2024, the 22-year-old resident of Pul-i-Khumiri in Baghlan province decided to seek a divorce.
The marriage had been consensual when she married Ali. She was a 19-year-old bride and he was 22. She discovered he was an addict six months after their marriage when Karima began to notice a strange odour on her husband’s body and clothes. He discovered that her husband was addicted to methamphetamine. Despite her distress, she initially didn’t consider divorce, as she had a one-year-old daughter.
As her husband’s physical and mental abuse of her worsened, she finally decided to divorce: “When he didn’t have money for drugs, he would beat me until he got tired. Finally, I said I need to divorce.” Her husband’s violence escalated after she asked for a divorce. A few days later, Karima managed to get hold of a family member’s mobile phone and called her father, telling him that she couldn’t leave the house due to the fear of her husband and mother-in-law’s cruelty. “I told my father to file a complaint against my husband, and he went to the Baghlan provincial justice department,” she tells Zan Times.
The first time, Karima’s father went to the Taliban’s justice department, he tried to register her divorce request. He was turned away. That was March 2024. He tried again but was also unsuccessful. For his third attempt, he travelled to Karima’s husband’s house and, the next day, went to the justice office along with local elders. A Taliban member told Karima that she should try to reform her husband instead of seeking a divorce: “He told me I should endure it and work on fixing him, not divorce him.”
Ali pledged to the local elders that he would no longer abuse Karima and would treat her properly. Karima was forced to return to her husband’s house with her daughter. The abuse continued. “This time, they beat me because I didn’t prepare the food they wanted,” she recounts.
Another woman in Baghlan province who wants a divorce is Sara*. The 21-year-old from Khost district has been married for six years. Eight months after her marriage, her 30-year-old husband took another wife. Sara says her husband has always mistreated her, including when she protested his second marriage: “He told me, ‘Who are you to question me? A man has the right to have four wives. I’ll beat you so much that you’ll hate life.’”
Since then, Sara lived as a servant in her husband’s house rather than as a wife. She has to cook, wash dishes, and iron clothes: “I feel like an unpaid servant. I work for my husband’s second wife and family all day, and they’ve given me one room to live in.”
Sara has a two-year-old daughter. She says her husband insulted her throughout their marriage, including when she was pregnant with their daughter, who is now two. “During my pregnancy, I asked my husband why he didn’t care about me,” she tells Zan Times. “I told him that while his other wife was sitting comfortably, I was struggling with my condition, doing all the housework. My husband pulled me by the hair and threw me hard into a corner of the room. I was in pain for days.”
Sara first considered divorce after her daughter was born, hoping to start a new life for herself and her child. When her child was only a month old, she left her house in Khost district in Baghlan in 45-degree heat, covered in a burqa, and made her way to Pul-i-Khumri to her father’s house. Her family advised her against seeking a divorce. “Everyone told me divorce is a taboo for women. My mother said that if a woman gets divorced, she will be labeled a bad woman, and all the blame will fall on her. She told me not to disgrace my father’s name and to forget about divorce.”
Sara stayed at her father’s house for over two years. When her daughter turned two, her husband’s family came with local elders and promised they would no longer mistreat her. She returned to their home. The very day she returned, her husband beat her in front of all the family members. “Everyone was watching while I screamed under torture. My daughter was crying uncontrollably,” she says.
Legal options available to women have been eliminated since August 2021. Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, most women’s rights organizations have been shut down, as were domestic violence shelters. In June 2023, Human Rights Watch reported that no organization was working to establish justice for women in Afghanistan, stating that judicial and legal institutions, including courts, the attorney general’s office, the justice ministry, and other key government agencies had been purged of female staff. Currently, no women work in judicial and legal institutions under Taliban control while women who previously worked as lawyers are officially barred from practicing.
Habiba*, a lawyer from Baghlan province who used to work in a government office during the republic era, confirms that no current institution listens to women’s voices: “I’m now at home myself, and I’ve witnessed women in Baghlan who have divorce cases against their husbands, but the head of the court treats them very badly, telling them they are immoral women for wanting a divorce or delaying their cases with various excuses.”
According to data provided by a former employee of the Women’s Affairs Department in Baghlan province, some 318 cases of violence against women were registered in the province in 2021, of which 39 were divorce cases. Now, the source tells Zan Times that women rarely approach Taliban offices for divorce cases. “Most cases are resolved through local councils,” the source explains. “Those who do go to the Taliban often find their cases are not officially registered.”
That happened to Sara. In April 2024, she went to a Taliban police station in Khost district to file a complaint against her husband and request a divorce. They ignored her case. “A Taliban member told me that if I were a good woman, I wouldn’t seek a divorce,” she explains. “A man has the right to have four wives.”
She decided to die by suicide after realizing that no government office or even her own family could protect her. “I called my mother and told her that if they didn’t rescue me from my husband, I would kill myself. I was truly ready to do it. I had no other option,” she says.
Her father, her only supporter in the family, still wants her to get a divorce as soon as possible so she can live in peace. However, the Taliban have refused to register the case, and tore up the divorce petition the last time he attempted to register it. “The last time, in September 2024, they told my father that since her husband doesn’t agree, he shouldn’t come back,” she says.
Meanwhile Karima, who also endures life with an abusive husband, also sees suicide as her only escape: “Once, I went to my room and hung a noose around my neck, but I couldn’t go through with it because my daughter was crying so much. Another time, I thought about taking rat poison. If I don’t get a divorce, I might go through with it next time.”
*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees and writer.
