The Silk Way Weekly interview with Maryam Avi (pseudonym), former member of the Independent Human Rights Commission in Ghor Province
Silk Way: The first question, why so much violence against women in Ghor?
Maryam Avi: The factors that I want to present to you about underage and forced marriages in Ghor province are based on conversations with people and women’s and human rights activists in Ghor province, especially in Firozkoh city. These statistics have been collected with great difficulty, because most people, even victims, are reluctant to provide information and tell the truth due to the security and intelligence situation created by the Taliban. However, those who are willing to talk do not want their identities to be revealed due to the sensitivity of the information. The information and news that these people provide contain very horrific, painful and shocking stories and realities that are going on in Ghor society.
Silk Way: Can we say that the Taliban are responsible for underage and forced marriages in Ghor?
Maryam Avi: The culture of underage and forced marriages, marriages where the child is not yet born, and marriages where the women are sold, is a product of the previous Taliban regime. In the twenty years of the republic, very little has been done to remove the dust from this violent culture. With the return of the Taliban, this culture has flourished again and people do it for various reasons. They force their daughters to marry underage, or they force older daughters to marry. We have examples of this. Abeda is an example who set herself on fire in Taywara and committed suicide because of the suffering and oppression she was subjected to by the Taliban.
Silk Way: Can you mention other factors of violence against women in Ghor?
Maryam Avi: Underage and forced marriages in Ghor province have various political, economic and cultural factors:
Political factors
The Taliban are the enemy of people’s participation, especially women’s participation in power through elections. By scaring people, taking women and girls hostage and forcing families to marry their children and daughters, the Taliban want to divert people’s attention from the political scene to family issues. The political reason is that women and girls should stay away from education, men should get involved in family issues and poverty, and as a result, oppress their women and girls so that the society remains dark. An illiterate, poor and involved in family issues naturally provides a good opportunity for implementing Taliban policies. Where does all this discrimination, prejudice and complexity come from? It may have its roots in the ignorance of this group or their tribal policies.
Economic factors
The people of Ghor are the poorest people. The lands of Ghor are not fertile. People cannot meet all their needs through agriculture. There are no factories and other job opportunities in Ghor. The Taliban also give people a share and help because of their ethnicity; that is, those who have fought in the ranks of the Taliban benefit from international aid. Those who were not in the ranks of the Taliban are pressured by issues. They are forced to sell their daughters. At least the expenses of the daughters should be removed from their shoulders. For these reasons, they are forced to marry their underage daughters by force and without their consent.
Cultural factors
Forced and underage marriages existed in Ghor before. But during the Taliban era, it became a culture. Although during the republican era, people were little familiar with human rights teachings. For example, the Independent Human Rights Commission, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, and civil society worked in this area to stop people from forced and underage marriages; but after the Taliban’s renewed rule, where there is no support for women, there is no protection for women, the Taliban culture has once again become dominant in society. Work, university, school, knowledge, and education have been taken away from women and girls. There is no reason left for misogynistic men not to sell their daughters.
Silk Way: Can you mention any examples of underage and forced marriages in Ghor that you have seen or heard of?
Maryam Avi: People have many sad and disturbing stories. But my information comes from the city of Firuzkuh and its villages. Places that have been under Taliban rule for a long time are painful. What is going on there? I would like to talk about some examples of underage and forced marriages in Ghor:
1.) Zohra (pseudonym), a 15-year-old girl, a resident of the “Dahan Kasi” area of the center of Firuzkoh city, was forcibly engaged to a 14-year-old boy on (May 23, 2025). She used to go to school. There are two victims, both Zohra, who is 15, and her husband, who is 14. Her father did not ask Zohra for any opinion; but he gave her to her husband. According to information from those close to Zohra, her father said, “I am a man and I have the right to make decisions about my daughter and I know where my daughter should be.
“Second) Shakila is a 13-year-old girl whose parents forcibly married her to a 35-year-old man named Farooq. Shakila’s parents are drug addicts and her husband is also a psychopath. Farooq constantly beat and tortured Shakila. According to information, as a result of this torture and violence, Shakila did not even have her period for two years and her husband was upset and complained, “Why can’t you have children?” Her husband beats Shakila many times because of her inability to have children, and finally she became pregnant last year (2024). Now her parents regret the torture they gave Shakila and are trying to save her from her cruel and psychopathic husband, but when Shakila’s husband finds out about this, he runs her away. Now Shakila has been missing for some time and no one knows where he took her.
Third) Zohal (pseudonym). Zohal has a very sad story: he lives in the “Sheikha Valley”. At the age of 13, Zohal is forced to get engaged to a 25-year-old man. She stays engaged for two years and gets pregnant. Zohal hides the pregnancy from everyone until the time of delivery. Then, during the delivery, she gives birth to her child alone in the bathroom of her house. Until this time, her parents did not know about this, but finally her mother finds out and her husband comes and says, “I don’t want this. I don’t want the child and I don’t want the woman either.” Zohal lives in great suffering in her father’s house for a while, and then three to four months later, her husband comes and takes her away. Imagine a 15-year-old girl goes into the bathroom of her house and gives birth secretly and alone, with no one else around. Both her parents forced her to marry, and now the girl must pay the price for this grave sin. Zohal is both a victim, a poor person, and an oppressed person.
Fourth) Sima (pseudonym) and her sister, were two sisters originally from Ghor. They were severely depressed because they had dropped out of school and were often in panic attacks. They went to the Ghor provincial hospital and unfortunately a doctor told their father that they had no problem and used a lot of vulgar language. He even told their father that you go and get these girls sanitary pads, I want to do something so that your girls see blood. Maybe she wanted to get her period or she wanted to rape them. I didn’t understand what the doctor was thinking when he said that. The doctor said that your girls are very fond of husbands and you should take them to a husband. Her father married Sima and her sister to Faryab after taking them home from the doctor. Both girls were suffering from severe depression because of their school and the atmosphere created by the Taliban, but instead of treatment, they were given to husbands in a distant province.
Fifth) A mother who has three daughters. All three are minors. The mother’s name is Golestan and she lives in the village of “Kasi” in Ghor. The mother, who is herself a victim of forced marriage, forces all three of her daughters to marry underage – one is 10 years old, one is 12 years old, and the other is 15 years old. Of course, it should not go without saying that all three of these girls were students and were studying. Their parents engaged them because of their poverty and economic problems. It is interesting that he divorces the 10-year-old girl and then remarries her a year later when she is 11 years old. Imagine what suffering these girls endure.
Sixth) Her name is Eqlima and she is 17 years old. She had come to our house a few days ago, I asked her about the situation of girls in Ghor. She had immigrated to Iran a year ago. She said that one day we were sitting at home when a girl came out in the alley, she was screaming a lot and her condition was very bad. Then we went outside and saw a girl running and two Taliban motorbikes were moving behind the girl. Well, finally they came and pulled the girl’s veil or headscarf from her head and the girl had no choice but to run towards some addicts who were sitting in a corner of the alley to seek refuge with them. May God bless the addicts who stood in front of the Taliban and the people all left and when the Taliban saw that everyone had left, they became embarrassed and turned back. They repeatedly ask everyone for the address of the girl’s house and the location of the girl’s father, and they say that they are going to propose.
Seventh) After a girl named Abida who set herself on fire in Taywara, another girl named Fariba, who was a resident of the same district, committed suicide on 14 May, 2025. This 17-year-old girl is liked by some Taliban and repeatedly proposes to her father. However, her parents, brothers, and sisters were not happy with this marriage; but they pressured and bullied her so much that her family was forced to get her engaged. However, this girl committed suicide by taking medicine.
Eighth) An 11-year-old girl, a resident of the center of Ghor province, is beaten to death by her family members. One day, her mother and brother tell her that she talked to the neighbor’s boy; the neighbor’s boy is your boyfriend. They beat the girl so much and hit her head that she faints. When they realize that she has fainted, they take her to the Ghor provincial hospital and unfortunately find that the girl has died. Now her mother has gone crazy with grief for her daughter again. It should not be left unsaid that after they go and examine the body, they realize that, that day was the first day of the girl’s period, and the first day of her youth when she was murdered.
Silk Way: The stories are shocking, the future of Ghor women is being destroyed.
Maryam Avi: Removing this culture from Ghor society is a very difficult task, and I am very sad and worried about the continuation of this situation. Because we are not only suffering today because of the Taliban’s ideology and politics; unfortunately, we have lost our yesterday, we have a painful today and a painful future ahead of us. It will take a long time for people to return to normal and for people to accept their daughters and respect women.
You know that last time, after the overthrow of the Taliban, during the twenty years of the republic, a lot of work was done, women’s rights were discussed at the level of councils and mosques, and mullahs were addressed to talk about women’s rights; but there was still very little progress. Now, all those activities are lost and all those liberating thoughts are disappearing from society, and the inappropriate culture and oppression of the Taliban are once again taking root in the country. And this is the reason that if the Taliban were to fall today, it would take at least another ten or twenty years for the impact of the Taliban culture to disappear from society. That is, even if a girl is born ten years later, she will have to suffer and endure misfortunes because of the Taliban government ten years ago.
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