Bitter Narratives of Violence Against Women Under the Taliban’s So-Called “Islamic” Banner

Image: AI-generated

Zan News, through conversations with women and girls in Afghanistan, has obtained narratives that indicate systematic and normalised violence against women, narratives that reflect women’s direct experiences of domestic violence.

“Because I refused to marry a 45-year-old man, my father beat me so severely that I thought I was taking my last breaths. My father married me off at the age of 13 in exchange for money.”

“My husband cuts the flesh of my body with a knife. People eat three meals a day, I receive beatings four times a day.”

“I wish I had died with the first blow, so that I would not have to live death every day.”

These narratives were shared with Zan News by Husna, Khatima, and Setara, women who speak of domestic violence.

Husna is a 15-year-old girl from Nimroz province who was forced into a child marriage two years ago through beatings by her father. She says her father sold her to a drug trafficker in exchange for money and forced her to marry him.

“This man is a drug trafficker, and my father forced me to marry him. I was 13 years old. He said it was either death or this husband. A 45-year-old man came to propose. Because I did not agree, my father beat me so badly that I thought I was taking my last breath. He sold me for 300.000 AFN.”

The uncoordinated movements of Husna’s hands and head are signs of the fear and terror that still remain within her, fear of her father’s fists and fear of the man who has consumed her future.

She says that on the fifteenth day after her wedding she fell into severe depression and is now suffering from mental illness.

Khatima is another woman who is experiencing severe forms of violence under Taliban rule. She says the Taliban not only failed to address her complaint, but also threatened her with imprisonment.

The 26-year-old woman from Badghis says:

“My husband cuts the flesh of my body with a knife. People eat three meals in a day, I am beaten four times a day. My father did not know he was addicted. It has been about five years since my marriage. Every day he cuts my back and thighs with a knife and says, find money, otherwise I will keep cutting your flesh until you die.”

She added that when she went to the Taliban’s Department for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice to seek a divorce, she was threatened.

“Two months ago I went to the Taliban and said my husband beats me and I want a divorce. The Taliban official said, put this woman in prison; complaining about one’s husband is a sin. He said you have no right to divorce, if your husband wants, he will divorce you. If you complain again, you will end up in prison yourself.”

Setara, another woman from Ghazni province, says her father forced her to marry a man who already had another wife. She describes the early days of her married life as follows:

“The first night my husband came to our house, I was scared. He was much older. When everyone left, he told me to come and lie on the bed. I was frightened and tried to run away. He struck me so hard with a flask that I lost consciousness. I wish I had died with that first blow, rather than being beaten every day. The next day I told my father. My father said even if he kills you, he is your husband and has the right. I do not know where my own rights are. Why does a man have rights, but a woman does not?”

Setara says she went to the Taliban authorities to escape the violence, but they humiliated her as well.

“I went to the police district and said my husband beats me every day. The Taliban laughed and said go and cook food for him, it will get better. One of them mocked me and said, you must not be attractive, that is why he beats you.”

These are not just narratives, but open wounds of women who, under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, have no place for refuge, complaint, or justice.

Narratives in which every word carries the weight of the pain of a generation, a generation that breathes, endures, and survives amid fists, tradition, transactions, and injustice.