Girls in Afghanistan who are banned from school for thousands of days are subjected to forced marriage, isolation, and violence with no end in sight.
Over the past three years, Asma’s future has been full of possibilities. At age 15, she enrolled in secondary school. After high school, she could attend university and then stride into the rest of her life.
Like many Afghan girls, Asma understood that education was the key to escaping the oppression and isolation that confirmed her mother and grandmother’s lives during the government of the Taliban government. She was a part of a new generation of Afghan women who had the opportunity to build self-sufficient and financially independent lifestyles.
The Taliban government declared school for boys in the past 1000 days, and about 1.2 million adolescent girls, including Asma, were banned from attending high schools in Afghanistan. Since then, they suffered a great deal, including forced and early marriage, domestic abuse, drug addiction, suicide, and eradication from all aspects of public life.
According to Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch, we’ve now reached 1000 days, but there is no end to the horror of what is happening to teenage girls in Afghanistan.” The Taliban have not only destroyed these girls’ dreams; they have put them on hold.”
Asma’s destiny has been predictable since she was unable to attend school. She was forced to marry a man she did not know, and the four walls of her father’s house were replaced by the walls of her new husband’s house.
She claims she pleaded with her parents to keep her from being forced into marriage. She told them about her hopes and dreams, but they laughed at her and said, “Since the Taliban has come, girls will never be allowed to study. It is better to get married and get on with your life.” After the wedding, her husband’s people told her she was bought and paid for and should be at home working for them.
When the Taliban took over, Benafasha was 13 years old, and her family was determined that she had to get married if she couldn’t go to school. According to Qudsia, Benafasha was forced to stay with her violent fiancé, who brutally beat and abused her. She added that Benafasha, being desperate and afraid, went to Taliban court to request permission to separate, but she was sent to prison instead.
Qudsia claims they have text messages and voice recordings showing he would insult and beat her, as well as pictures showing how he had been her sister.
The Judge took Benafasha’s husband’s side, stating that women are also looking for an excuse to separate. Benafasha was told that as long as she refused to live with her husband, she would be in prison. Many female teenagers are depressing themselves with thoughts of domestic slavery and social seclusion.
According to a December United Nations poll, 76% of women and girls who participated in the survey rated their mental health as “bad” or “very bad,” citing their trauma as their headaches, anxiety, and lack of appetite.
A report released last month by the UN special rapporteur for Afghanistan assessed the dire situation facing girls and women in Afghanistan. “Many girls are denied secondary education and driven to psychological distress, including suicidal thoughts and actions. Denial of access to equal education is causing transgenerational disempowerment that will increasingly deepen the debased socioeconomic status and state of state-imposed reliance on men.
