KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – A young woman has been killed by her husband in Takhar province, northern Afghanistan, amid a surge in domestic violence cases across the country
Zabihullah Hakimi, spokesperson for the Taliban’s security command in Takhar, confirmed that the incident took place in Yangi Qala district on Thursday night. The man shot and killed his wife after a verbal dispute.
The motive behind the incident remains unclear, and the Taliban authorities have detained the husband and launched an investigation into the matter, Hakimi added.
Domestic and gender-based violence have long taken a toll on the lives of women and girls in Afghanistan, with a sharp rise in such incidents since the Taliban’s return to power.
From January 2022 to June 2024, Afghan Witness, a project of the Center for Information Resilience, documented 700 incidents of violence against 840 women and girls in Afghanistan. These cases included femicide, physical abuse, sexual assault, torture, enforced disappearances, and other forms of violence targeting women and girls.
The Taliban has closed all women’s protection centers in Afghanistan, which were established under the previous government to offer refuge to female survivors of domestic violence. Additionally, the regime dismantled the legal and institutional frameworks that once protected women and girls, leaving them trapped in a cycle of violence with no access to justice.
In addition, suicide rates among women and girls in Afghanistan have sharply increased since the Taliban’s takeover, with most cases linked to domestic violence, mental health issues, desperation, and the regime’s restrictions.
In 2023, Etilaat Roz documented at least 103 cases of women dying by suicide across 28 provinces, the majority of them under the age of 20. The actual number is likely higher, as many suicides go unreported due to the Taliban’s media restrictions and family efforts to keep such incidents private.
