KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – A young girl in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, has died by suicide after being forcibly married to an elderly man, local sources reported.
The girl, a resident of Khakrez district, ingested poison on Tuesday and passed away later that night in a hospital, the sources said.
According to the sources, her family had married her off in exchange for a large sum of money to a man over 50 years old. Her engagement took place last week, but she was unwilling to marry him and ultimately ended her life.
The local Taliban authorities have not yet commented on the incident.
This young girl’s story reflects a growing crisis for women and girls in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. In recent years, dozens of women and girls have died by suicide—through poisoning, hanging, or gunshot—to escape forced marriages, domestic violence, and sexual abuse.
Forced and early marriages have been on the rise, driven by Taliban oppression, economic hardship, and social pressures. In some cases, families marry off adolescent daughters to prevent their forced marriages to Taliban fighters.
In a broader context, gender-based violence (GBV) has surged across Afghanistan. A report by Afghan Witness documented over 700 GBV cases between January 2022 and June 2024, involving 840 women and girls. Among these, at least 322 were femicides—cases where women were intentionally killed because of their gender. The report also recorded 287 instances of arrest, detention, and enforced disappearances, as well as 75 cases of sexual assault or rape.
International experts and human rights groups have condemned the Taliban’s oppressive policies, warning that the escalating violence against women and girls constitutes a form of gender apartheid.
