A young woman hides under a tree between two busy streets, clutching a pile of documents to her chest.
These pieces of paper mean more to Bibi Najdana than anything else in the world. It was a divorce granted to her after a two-year court battle to escape her life as a child bride.
These documents are the same ones invalidated by the Taliban court. The group’s hardline interpretation of sharia (religious law) has effectively silenced women from Afghanistan’s legal system.
Najdana’s divorce is one of tens of thousands of court rulings that have been reversed since the Taliban took control of the country three years ago this month.
Just 10 days after they arrived in the capital Kabul, the man they had agreed to meet at 7 o’clock asked the court to overturn the divorce decree that they had worked so hard to protect.
Hekmatullah first appeared to make demands on his wife when Najdana was 15 years old. It’s been eight years since her father agreed to a so-called ‘bad marriage’ that sought to turn the family’s “enemies” into “friends.”
She immediately asked a court operating under the U.S.-backed Afghan government for separation, repeatedly saying she could not marry the farmer, now in his 20s. It took two years, but the decision was finally made in her favor. “The court congratulated me and said, ‘You are now separated and free to marry whomever you wish.’”
But after Hekmatullah appealed the ruling in 2021, Najdana was told he would not be allowed to argue his case in person.
“In court, the Taliban said I should not go back to court because it was against Sharia. Instead, they said my brother should defend me,” Nazdana said.
“They told us that if we did not comply, they would force us to hand over my sister to him (Hekmatullah),” said Shams, Nazdana’s 28-year-old younger brother.
Her ex-husband, now a newly joined Taliban member, won his case. Shams’ attempts to explain to the court in his hometown of Uruzgan that his life was in danger were ignored.
The brothers decided they had no choice but to run.
