KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – A man in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province has reportedly killed his 16-year-old daughter after she refused to marry an elderly wealthy man.
Local Taliban authorities have confirmed the incident, saying that it took place in Nangarhar’s Rodat district on Tuesday night, March 11.
Sayed Tayeb Hammad, spokesperson for the Taliban security command in Nangarhar, said the father had planned to marry off his teenage daughter in exchange for a large sum of money, but she refused. He then killed her and fled the scene. Efforts to arrest him are underway, Hammad added.
This incident highlights the growing crisis faced by women and girls in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, where forced and child marriages are on the rise, primarily due to poverty and restrictions on women’s and girl’s rights.
In recent years, dozens of women and girls across Afghanistan have died by suicide to escape forced marriages, domestic violence, and sexual abuse.
More broadly, gender-based violence (GBV) has surged in the country. A report by Afghan Witness documented over 700 GBV cases between January 2022 and June 2024, affecting 840 women and girls. Among these, at least 322 were femicides—cases where women were killed because of their gender. The report also recorded 287 incidents of arrest, detention, and enforced disappearances, as well as 75 cases of sexual assault or rape.
