The extent of discrimination and exclusion of the female population in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 has recently reached absurd proportions.
According to an in-depth article in the "Washington Post" that traced the situation of women in the country over the past year and a half, thousands of women who were divorced under the previous government were forced to return to their husbands in recent months because the fundamentalist organization refuses to recognize their divorce certificates.
Social networks / The Taliban imposes new laws on women
According to the report, this means that thousands of women who managed to dissolve the marriage through the previous legal system, and did not receive express permission from their husbands at the time, are considered married again.
Those who refuse to return to their owners are at risk of imprisonment and even institutional violence.
If that's not enough, even a divorce that was granted at the time after the judges were convinced that the woman experienced abuse from her husband or because he was addicted to drugs, now has no meaning and she has to ask again to be considered divorced.
"Since 2021, the divorced owners began to gain power because of the authorities, especially those linked to the Taliban," the article reads.
"I lived a new life after the divorce, I was happy," said an anonymous woman to The Washington Post from her place of residence in the west of the country.
"I thought I was safe from my husband and I didn't think I would have to find a hiding place again."
She said she began receiving calls from her ex-husband within weeks of the Taliban coming to power.
He informed her that he had informed the authorities about what she had done - that is, about the divorce she obtained under the previous authorities - and that they intended to help him take revenge on her.
Men who married divorced women are also in danger for fear that they will now be defined as adulterers.
Although the new law enacted by the Taliban apparently allows the annulment of a marriage in case of abuse, the woman has to go through hardships to prove it: "Under the new law, women have to go to the police station and provide testimonies from a number of different people about abuse or drug addiction."
But in many cases, the woman is unable to do this because there is no one at home except the couple.
Meanwhile, a new UN report on the treatment of women and girls in the country may pave the way for bringing the extremist Islamic authorities to justice.
The report, published by the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, states that the reduction of women's rights and the narrowing of their access to the Afghan public since 2021 - including educational institutions - may meet the conditions required to define the Taliban's actions as crimes that go against universal international conventions.
"It is possible that this is persecution because of gender, which amounts to a crime against humanity," it said.
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