A child bride won the right to divorce - now the Taliban say it doesn't count [View all]

Source: BBC

A child bride won the right to divorce - now the Taliban say it doesn't count

29 September 2024

Mamoon Durrani
BBC Afghan Service
Kawoon Khamoosh
BBC World Service•@Kawoonkhamoosh

There is a young woman sheltering under a tree between two busy roads clutching a pile of documents to her chest.

These pieces of paper are more important to Bibi Nazdana than anything in the world: they are the divorce granted to her after a two-year court battle to free herself from life as a child bride.

They are the same papers a Taliban court has invalidated - a victim of the group’s hardline interpretation on Sharia (religious law) which has seen women effectively silenced in Afghanistan’s legal system.

Nazdana’s divorce is one of tens of thousands of court rulings revoked since the Taliban took control of the country three years ago this month.

It took just 10 days from them sweeping into the capital, Kabul, for the man she was promised to at seven to ask the courts to overturn the divorce ruling she had fought so hard for.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx24evnk5d2o