Kabul: A woman in Afghanistan’s Ghor province died by suicide before Taliban forces could kill her for running away from home, local media reported citing local Taliban.
According to Khaama Press, the Taliban planned to stone the woman, who ran away from home with a married man, on Friday, but before that, she took her life to avoid public humiliation.
The man with whom the woman ran away from home was executed on Thursday, October 13, the officials added.
Abdul Rahman, the acting spokesperson for the provincial police chief of the Taliban for Ghor, said that the woman was sentenced to publicly stoning due to the lack of a women’s prison, Khaama Press reported.
According to the Taliban security official, the woman strangled herself with a scarf, ending her life before receiving the punishment.
The reports of women running away from home have recently increased in different provinces of the country, while the Taliban government has determined to stone them to death or publicly flog them.
This comes after the Taliban imposed several restrictions on women. Starting with placing restrictions on education. The female students above grade six were banned from going to school, according to Khaama Press.
The Taliban regime which took over Kabul in August last year has curtailed women’s rights and freedoms, with women largely excluded from the workforce due to the economic crisis and restrictions.
As a result, women and girls in Afghanistan are facing a human rights crisis, deprived of the fundamental rights to non-discrimination, education, work, public participation, and health.
Even taxi drivers and other urban transportation services were forbidden from picking up and dropping off women without a Mahram by the Taliban and imposed decree against the women’s dress code was issued after a month.
Around 80 per cent of women working in the media have lost their jobs, and almost 18 million women in the country are struggling for health, education, and social rights. Many women, particularly those who worked in security agencies, lost their jobs after the Islamic Emirate was re-established.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released a report in August, outlining the human rights situation in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover.
The reports summarized UNAMA’s findings with regard to the protection of civilians, extrajudicial killings, torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests and detentions, the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, fundamental freedoms, and the situation in places of detention.
Amid this, the rehiring of women officers comes as a ray of hope for the women facing several severe challenges in the country.
Some female police forces urged the Islamic Emirate to allow more women to work in government institutions. “We ask the Islamic Emirate to let all the women return to their jobs,” said Mashoqa, a police officer.
