BAHARIN LEHIB

Baghlan- Afghan women and girls suffer from domestic violence and child marriage. Since the Taliban took the control of Afghanistan, they have issued decrees and orders to legitimize gender-based violence, child marriage and forced marriage. You can meet the victims of gender-based violence, child marriage and forced marriage across Afghanistan. In rural areas of Afghanistan, women and girls are forced to have a “humiliating life” by their male relatives and their only supporters are their mothers and women of their families.

She was saved from child marriage

During our travel to the city of Baghlan, we met Sofia Wahab, a 25-year-old survivor of domestic violence and child marriage. Her story is only one of the stories of Afghan women. Her male family members tried to force her into a marriage when she was 13. She was saved from child marriage by the resistance of her mother and sister-in-law. She told us her story:

“I just turned 13 and started going to secondary school with the support of my mother. However, my father and brother decided to marry me off to a man older than my father. When I returned from school, my younger brother told me that they would marry me off a mullah who had two more wives. His daughter was older than I was. When I heard that I cried. My mother did not know anything about the planned marriage. When my mother and my sister-in-law heard it, they discussed it with my father and brother. However, my father and brother did not listen to them stressing that I would have a good life. Next day, the mullah and some men decided to visit our home to determine the engagement ceremony. With the support of all the children in our village, my mother and sister-in-law welcomed them with stones, sticks and hot water. Together, we did not allow them to enter our home. The mullah and all the men got angry and then the mullah refused to marry me.”

‘I see myself as the happiest person in the world’

Before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Sofia Wahab worked as a teacher. “After several months, I had to leave my village. If I did not have the support of my mother and sister-in-law, I am sure that I would have a miserable life today, like thousands of other women. But now, I see myself as the happiest person in the world.”

Calling on all women to support each other, Sofia Wahab said, “Women should unite against the patriarchal mindset. They should allow men to turn our lives into hell.”