The Washington Examiner says: The dangers facing women in Afghanistan have been heightened by the new Taliban rulings. Under the previous Afghan government, some women were granted a divorce after proving that they had been abused or their husbands were drug addicts. However, as of last week, the Taliban have overturned these rulings, and the effects of their rule could be catastrophic.

New Divorce Laws

Women who remarried after being granted divorce can now be deemed to have committed adultery under the harsh Taliban justice system, and can be subjected to crimes against them that carry a harsh and brutal corporal punishment, including public stoning, the paper says.

Violence against women returns

The paper noted that Taliban members had previously forced Afghan women to reunite with their former husbands after their divorce was revoked, which many fear would force all women affected by the new rule to return to violent marriages. In 2011, the World Health Organization found that about 90% of Afghan women were subjected to domestic violence. Unfortunately, the Taliban closed down the many shelters where victims of abuse could find a safe haven as of December 2021. In their absence, women became threatened with violence and had no means to escape their husband’s violence.

The Story of Nasrin 

In the months that followed the US withdrawal, she lived in fear of Taliban threats to force her to return to her husband, who wanted to marry her 22-year-old daughter to a Taliban fighter. To avoid losing her daughter, Nasreen fled to Pakistan. She has now overstayed her visa and is facing continued deportation. “Like many desperate Afghans, she has run out of money, is thinking of smuggling herself illegally into Turkey to protect herself and her daughter, and although Nasrin had hoped for the future by referring to the US Refugee Admissions Program, her referral has never borne fruit.”

“I begged many people with authority in the U.S. government, the world’s superpower, to help an Afghan woman,” Nasrin told me. “I am very disappointed in life.”

European sanctions

The EU has responded to the Taliban’s continued ban on girls’ education above the sixth grade and their attacks on women’s rights by imposing sanctions on two senior Taliban commanders, whose efforts may be too little, too late, as the Taliban’s hatred of women seep beyond the country’s borders, the paper said.

Silencing women

The Taliban’s efforts to silence women’s voices are affecting Western women working to elevate the Afghan population and push Afghan women to dangerous and deadly margins in society. Immediate and robust action must be taken to protect women from a barrage of Taliban attacks on their basic human rights.

Taliban Insistence

The Taliban has refused to back down on restrictions on women, saying they are in line with Afghan culture and Islamic law. The refusal has prompted donor countries to halt financial aid and maintain economic sanctions, except for humanitarian aid. Taliban and UN officials say the ban on female education has kept more than one million girls out of school.