KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – A man has hanged and killed his wife in eastern Nangarhar province, local Taliban authorities confirmed.
Sayed Tayeb Hamad, spokesperson for the Taliban police in Nangarhar, said the incident took place on Saturday (April 12) in the Mashwano area of Bati Kot district.
He said the suspect was arrested shortly after the incident.
The motive, according to Hamad, was domestic violence.
Afghanistan has long had one of the highest rates of violence against women. Even before the Taliban’s return to power, nine out of ten Afghan women reported experiencing at least one form of intimate partner violence during their lifetime.
Since the Taliban seized control in August 2021, the situation for women has deteriorated sharply.
The group has imposed a series of sweeping restrictions that have excluded women from education, employment, and public life. Activists and international observers say these policies have created a climate of impunity for violence against women.
Between January 2022 and June 2024, Afghan Witness documented at least 700 incidents of violence targeting 840 women and girls. These include femicide, torture, sexual violence, enforced disappearances, and physical abuse.
At the same time, the Taliban has dismantled legal mechanisms and institutions that once provided some protection for women, including the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and special courts for gender-based violence cases.
Human rights experts and UN representatives have described the Taliban’s gender-based policies as a form of gender apartheid, warning of long-term consequences for Afghan society if the situation continues unchecked.
