The Global Slavery Index 2023

Regional: Asia and Pacific (Part 3)

​Frontline voices: “I have no way out”: Forced into marriage, Afghan girls fear for their future.
 
Afghanistan has experienced decades of political instability and insecurity amid successive wars and violent conflicts. The most recent Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, in August 2021 following the withdrawal of US troops, saw the militant group seize control of the country’s capital city, Kabul, after a rapid advance across the country. The Taliban’s return to power has seen mass degradation of human rights in the country as well as mass violence and terrorism. The emerging restrictions on women and girls’ mobility and participation in government and education are further contributing to the rapid rise of modern slavery risks across the country. 
 
With Afghan women increasingly confined to their homes, reports on their welfare are difficult to obtain. For this piece The Fuller Project, a global newsroom that reports on issues that impact women, and Zan Times, a women-led investigative newsroom that covers human rights in Afghanistan spoke to women facing the worst impacts of Taliban rule. What their interviews reveal is a nation grappling to resist ongoing violence and exploitation. 
 
Afghan teenager Rukhsar once dreamed of becoming a doctor and finding a well-educated husband who would support her work. That was before the Taliban banned secondary education for girls and the 15-year-old’s father forced her to get engaged to an older man. 
 
“Sometimes I think to myself, it is better to ... run away from home,” said Rukhsar, whose name has been changed for her protection, in the western city of Herat. 
 
Yet Rukhsar said she feared that fleeing home would lead to her being caught by the Taliban — putting her in an even worse situation. 
 
Her situation is far from unique. Reports of early and forced marriages have soared since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 and excluded girls from middle and high schools, according to Afghan experts and international organisations working in the country. 
 
Rukhsar’s father arranged her engagement to the son of his business partner — a 22-year-old car salesman, in December. Without an education, Rukhsar said her father saw marriage as the only option for her. Her desperate appeals to him have been answered with violence. 
 
“Every time I object to this marriage, my father beats me very hard,” she said in an interview. 
 
“My mother can’t help me either because she herself got married at the age of 14,” added Rukhsar, whose wedding is set for June. “I don’t really know anything about marriage, I still play with my dolls. I have no way out of this situation.” 
 
Even before the Taliban’s takeover, child marriage was prevalent in Afghanistan. According to the latest national data from 2017, about 28 per cent of women aged 20 to 24 were married before turning 18, and 4 per cent before reaching 15. The former Afghan government set the minimum age for marriage at 16 for girls, but even this was rarely enforced. But the Taliban’s crackdown on women’s and girls’ freedoms, such as the right to work and attend school, as well as the worsening economic and humanitarian outlook, are fuelling an increase in early and forced marriage rates across the country. 
 
“The Taliban’s draconian policies on women and girls are only increasing in number and severity, and this means that prospects are extremely dim for any improvements in terms of child, early and forced marriage in Afghanistan,” Nicolette Waldman, senior crisis advisor for Amnesty, said in an interview. 
UNICEF Afghanistan spokesman Salam Al-Janabi said there is a growing number of reports of “destitute parents being forced into heart-breaking measures to keep their families alive” — from exchanging daughters for a dowry to selling infants to strangers. 
 
Shaharzad Akbar, the former chairperson of Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission, said the laws and structures meant to protect women and children “no longer exist.” 
 
“The economic conditions of poor families and tolerance of child marriage have led to increase of forced and child marriage for girls in Afghanistan,” said Akbar, who is now executive director of Rawadari, an organisation that monitors and reports on human rights violations in the country. 
 
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid dismissed reports of an increase in early marriage and said people were not forcing their children to wed. 
 
“We don’t have a number for it, but propaganda about this is not true,” he said in a phone interview. 
 
“The level of awareness about [child marriage and forced marriage] is high among people and they don’t give their children into marriage ... forced marriage is not possible at all.” 
 
The Taliban issued a decree on women’s rights which said, “no one can force women to marry by coercion or pressure.” However, last May a spokesman for the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice told Voice of America that girls “can be given to marriage” upon reaching puberty.
 
It is not just the Taliban’s policies but its members themselves who are also fuelling forced marriage, according to rights groups and some of the girls interviewed for this story. Cases of Taliban members forcing women and girls to wed them has even led some families to marry off their daughters urgently as a preventative measure. 
 
Fatima, 14, lives in a village in Kang district in southwestern Nimroz province where gossip spread last year that the Taliban would force girls under the age of 18 into marriage. “My father engaged me because of these rumours,” she said in an interview. 
 
She was married off in February 2022 and moved to Zaranj city, the capital of Nimroz, to live with her husband and his family. There, she faced abuse and violence. “I was very young. I did not understand anything about being a housewife and doing chores,” she said. “My mother-in-law used to torture me because I couldn’t do housework.” 
 
The situation grew even worse, with Fatima recalling how her husband would beat her repeatedly, even when she was seven months pregnant. Although her husband moved to Iran several months ago to make money as a labourer, Fatima said she is still trapped with his family as she raises her baby. 
 
“I would wish no one else to experience the pain and suffering that I am going through,” she said. 
 
Girls who are forced into marriage face a greater risk of domestic servitude and other forms of forced labour both inside and outside the home. They experience domestic abuse and violence, marital rape, complications during pregnancy and childbirth, and disproportionately suffer from mental health conditions. 
 
“The consequences will be devastating not only for the physical and mental health of these girls, but for generations to come.” said Akbar of Rawadari. 
 
An Afghan doctor in a mental health ward in Herat province, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals from the Taliban, said more women and girls were arriving with extreme mental health conditions, in many cases as a result of being forced into marriage. 
 
“This unfortunate situation has increased the number of our visitors,” he said in a phone interview, referring to a rise in forced and early marriages. 
 
“The Taliban’s restrictions have left women in a vulnerable position ... (they) are paying the price,” he said. 
 
Having been married off by her uncle last November to avoid a Taliban wedding, 17-year-old Arzu said she is treated like “a slave” and is now suffering from severe depression. “I am married to someone with whom I cannot live and I have no escape from it,” she said in an interview from northern Samangan province. 
 
“I hate him more everyday. My life will be ruined by this man.” 
 
Arzu said she endures constant beatings, rape and death threats, and that her husband’s family refuse to take her to a doctor despite her poor mental health. 
 
“From the day I got married, my body melts like a candle.” 
 
“My memory is weakening. I have become forgetful. I don’t remember anything. I don’t talk to anyone — it’s no use.” 
 
Recognition of the intersection between conflict and modern slavery risks in Afghanistan is vital. In the face of an uncertain future, Afghanistan needs continued and sustained advocacy and action from the international community, towards the goal of establishing stability and rule of law. In the immediate term, there is an urgent need to reopen secondary schools and universities for women and girls, and for a humanitarian response to ensure support to all at- risk persons and to enhance monitoring and reporting mechanisms throughout the country. 
 
Walk Free 2023. Global Slavery Index 2023. Minderoo Foundation Ltd. Australia.