Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: GEW-PRACTICE-1

"It would be no surprise for a Taliban official to feel free to inflict forced marriage, rape, assault, nonconsensual filming, and blackmail. The question is how many such cases go unheard. When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, they systematically dismantled structures to combat violence against women and girls. These include shelters, legal assistance programs, and specialized prosecution units and courts tasked with enforcing the country’s 2009 Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women. All of that is gone now. Journalist Ruchi Kumar corroborated facts about Elaha’s case and said Taliban officials have similarly targeted female relatives of other former government officials with violence to punish their male...more

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: SEGI-PRACTICE-2

"The Taliban have not issued any statement or clarification [regarding the international criticism about the Taliban stopping women students from leaving Afghanistan to study in Dubai]. A spokesperson for the Vice and Virtue ministry, Mohammad Sadiq Akif Muhajir, told the BBC they were not aware of the incident. A senior Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, also declined to comment, saying he was travelling and did not have any information" (para 29-31).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: IIP-LAW-1

"The Taliban has banned solo travel for women and only allow them to go abroad with their husbands or a related male companion such as a brother, uncle or father, known as a mahram, a male escort. But even this was not enough. 'Three girls who had a mahram were inside the plane,' says Natkai [a 20-year old Afghan student]. 'But officials from the Vice and Virtue ministry took them off the plane'" (para 13-15). "Mr. Ahmad [the brother of a scholarship recipient to study in Dubai] says some of the women even borrowed money to pay for a visa for a male companion to accompany them but were still...more

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: LRW-DATA-1

"The support system for survivors of rape and most protection services were dismantled following the Taliban’s takeover. Since August 2021, UNAMA’s HRS received 87 reports of killing, rape, suicide, forced marriages including child marriage, assault and battery, and honor killings. None of the cases were processed through the formal justice system" (29).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: WR-PRACTICE-1

"When a girl [in Pashtun tribe in Afghanistan] is given to a husband in exchange for a large sum of money, she becomes the property of her in-laws and, if the poor woman ever loses her husband, she’s forbidden from remarrying of her own accord. Her husband’s family, who continue to ‘own’ her, will forcibly marry her to another male member of their family (usually the deceased husband’s brother or nephew) with the justification that this woman is now their namus (honour). In Afghan culture, namus refers to the responsibility of male family members to safeguard the dignity of their mothers, sisters, daughters and wives in the eyes of men...more

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-8

"Some women have no say in choosing their husbands, and many girls are engaged to one of the boys in their family (usually to their uncles’ sons: that is, their first cousins) in a process called ‘naming’. This means that the girl, like a house or land or an object, is placed under someone’s name, like a title deed, and considered a part of their property" (para 6).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-1

"Some women have no say in choosing their husbands, and many girls are engaged to one of the boys in their family (usually to their uncles’ sons: that is, their first cousins) in a process called ‘naming’. This means that the girl, like a house or land or an object, is placed under someone’s name, like a title deed, and considered a part of their property. This decision, made at birth, is unbreakable, and the girl and boy cannot sever it when they get older. If girls are not betrothed to someone in childhood, they are married off in adolescence, or sometimes even before puberty, without their consent. In the...more

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: ATFPA-PRACTICE-2

"The participation of women in Afghanistan has always depended on the decisions of men. If a woman wants to enter and secure her place in society, the first obstacle she faces is the closed door of her home, sealed against her by a male member of her family. If some women manage to open this door, the government has made sure to block any avenue of social growth to them. The only thing left for Afghan women to do is to cry behind the closed doors that bar their access to schools, universities, offices or even entertainment venues" (para 2). "Some women have no say in choosing their husbands, and...more

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: AFE-PRACTICE-1

"...When the Taliban entered Kabul, they banned women from working and girls from studying. I [Marjan, Afghan narrator], who once dreamed of becoming a doctor, was confined to the house. I was in the sixth grade" (para 14).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: CIWM-PRACTICE-1

"In some households [in Pashtun tribe in southeast Afghanistan], the order in which the women eat is also different from that of the men. In our province, women are not allowed to eat at the same time as the men and on the same food cloth. Instead, the women prepare the food, take it to the food cloth, and then return to the kitchen to wait. Since children are dependent on women, they don’t eat either. Only when the men and older women have finished eating can the other women and the children of the household eat what’s left over" (para 11).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: ERBG-LAW-1

"The Taliban, who returned to power in 2021, have been accused of enforcing a system of gender apartheid in Afghanistan. Women returning to the country must live with oppressive laws that ban them from showing their faces, speaking or appearing in public, as well as being excluded from most jobs and education. Anyone caught breaking these rules faces public flogging" (para 3). "...Under Taliban policy, most single women are barred from receiving land, travelling alone to their home province, or accessing employment" (para 11). "Sahar [40-year-old Afghan woman with five children] says her options in Afghanistan are bleak. She has an elderly mother in Baghlan, but no home, no job...more

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: IIP-PRACTICE-2

"The Taliban says it offers short-term shelter and transport assistance to women deported without a mahram (an adult male who can accompany her on a journey). But many returnees say they received no such help. Under Taliban policy, most single women are barred from receiving land, travelling alone to their home province, or accessing employment" (para 11). "In the buses taking deportees from detention to the Afghanistan borders, women also say they are subjected to verbal abuse, bribes demanded for basic services and no air conditioning in extreme heat. 'They said it’s a waste for you Afghans. My child cried from the heat, but the driver laughed and mocked us,'...more

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: DACH-LAW-1

"The Taliban are restricting Afghan women’s access to work, travel and health care if they are unmarried or don’t have a male guardian, according to a U.N report published Monday" (para1). "In Paktia province, the Vice and Virtue Ministry has stopped women without mahrams from accessing health facilities since December. It visits health facilities in the province to ensure compliance" (para 9).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: AFE-LAW-1

"The Taliban have barred women from most areas of public life and stopped girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade as part of harsh measures they imposed after taking power in 2021, despite initially promising more moderate rule" (para 3). "This [Islamic government in power in Afghanistan] means enforcing rules for the hijab, male guardianship and gender segregation for women in education and employment, he [The Taliban’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid] said" (para 15).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"They [The Taliban] have also shut down beauty parlors and started enforcing a dress code, arresting women who don’t comply with their interpretation of hijab, or Islamic headscarf. In May 2022, the Taliban issued a decree calling for women to only show their eyes and recommending they wear the head-to-toe burqa, similar to restrictions during the Taliban’s previous rule between 1996 and 2001" (para 4). "The ministry, which serves as the Taliban’s morality police, is also enforcing hijab and mahram requirements when women visit public places, offices and education institutes through checkpoints and inspections" (para 10) "This [Islamic government in power in Afghanistan] means enforcing rules for the hijab, male...more