By Zuhal
Soraya has tears in her eyes as she recalls the day nearly two years ago when armed men came for her daughter Karishma, who’s now 21. The young woman’s crime: refusing to marry a member of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban.
Within hours Karishma, who was widowed three years ago, had appeared in court on unspecified charges and been sent to Kabul’s notorious Pul-e-Charkhi jail, Afghanistan’s largest high-security prison. She has been there ever since, separated from her two small children.
When the family went to the police station, Soraya says, her daughter’s suitor was there. He claimed the pair were already married and accused Soraya of making Karishma run away.
“It was around noon when we reached the court. I thought it was just a routine visit. But the judge said, ‘Your daughter has only two choices: go with Latif as his wife, or go to prison.’ I collapsed. They handcuffed her in front of me and took her away,” she said.
“I cried and begged, but the Talibs laughed and mocked me.”
Karishma’s family say she lost her husband three years ago in a road traffic accident when she was pregnant with their second child.
A year later, a Taliban soldier man named Abdul Latif who was stationed at Kabul airport began trying to coerce her into marriage.
Latif asked several times over and Soraya says she and her son even visited his home in Helmand, where they discovered he already had a wife and two children. “After that, we refused,” she says.
“I saw their home, and it was frightening, not a place for my daughter. Above all, he had a wife and children.”
In the months after Soraya refused to hand over her daughter, nothing happened. But after six months, she says, Latif filed a case in which he alleged that Karishma was already his wife.
Rukhshana Media has not been able to contact Latif for comment.
Documents obtained by Rukhshana Media show that Soraya appealed to several Taliban departments, including Kabul’s courts and the provincial council of religious scholars, warning that Latif was trying to coerce her daughter into marriage.
The courts repeatedly ruled in Latif’s favour, said Soraya, who believes that is because of his position and influence.
Documents obtained by Rukhshana Media show that Soraya appealed to several Taliban departments, including Kabul’s courts and the provincial council of religious scholars.
A month after Karishma was imprisoned, she was summoned again to the civil court, where Latif brought two witnesses who testified that he and Karishma were married. Soraya insists these men were his relatives and Taliban affiliates.
But the judge found in his favour, a court document seen by Rukhshana Media showed, ruling that Karishma was Latif’s wife and must “obey her husband in marital matters”.
Karishma’s family says the witnesses lied to the court. She swore a religious oath denying any marriage had taken place, but this was ignored.
They still don’t know why she is in prison. No criminal charge appears in any of the documents reviewed by Rukhshana Media and Soraya is sure her daughter has been held just for exercising her right to choose a husband.
Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan, told the Human Rights Council that the Taliban use Sharia as a tool to consolidate power and suppress citizens, especially women. Amnesty International likewise reported that under Taliban courts, “a woman’s voice is not heard.”
Karishma’s 15-year-old sister Dunya said Karishma’s health has deteriorated since she was incarcerated: she suffers from kidney pain, and has said that the other inmates beat her. Last time Dunya saw her, she had bruises all over her.
Dunya still remembers the night her mother came home alone the night she was jailed, pale and trembling with fear. “That night, our house was a place of mourning,” she said.
Although the Taliban claim to oppose forced marriage, multiple reports show that their members have coerced women and girls into marriage. One young woman recently set herself on fire to escape such a union.
“Every hearing ends in favour of that man because we’re poor and he’s part of the Taliban’s Emirate. He has armed escorts even inside the courtroom,” Dunya adds.
Since Karishma’s imprisonment, the family has struggled. Soraya now has heart problems, and her husband had a stroke, likely brought on by the stress.
The family has appealed the verdicts, and a new hearing is expected soon. But Soraya fears the outcome:
“Inmates imprisoned for adultery have been released, but my daughter remains. The Emirate says forced marriage is a crime — then why is Karishma jailed while Latif walks free? She always tells me, ‘If they give me to him, I will kill myself’,” she says.
