Bayan News – Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, has stated that the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue has prevented over 5,000 forced marriages involving monetary exchange, as well as marriages of young girls to elderly men, across Afghanistan over the past three years.
On Monday (November 25), without mentioning the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, he added that in the last six months alone, 500 such cases had been prevented.
This claim comes amid allegations that the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has been involved in repression, arbitrary detentions, imposing restrictions on women’s rights and freedoms, and widespread human rights violations.
The Taliban spokesperson further claimed that, through the efforts of the ministry’s inspectors, inheritance rights, dowries, and other fundamental rights of 20,000 women have been restored over the past three years.
He added that these rights had been stripped from these women due to harmful traditions and “misplaced notions of honor.” Mujahid noted that 1,000 such cases have been recorded and resolved in the past six months.
