A chilling tale of resistance and unbearable brutality brings to light the drama of women in modern-day Afghanistan, where Bibi Sediqa , a teenage girl, has been imprisoned for nearly two years and subjected to torture for her stubborn refusal to submit to a forced marriage to a 70-year-old powerful Taliban commander. The young girl’s nightmarish ordeal in Badghis province began when she was just 12 years old, when commander Maulavi Khodaynazar forced her to move into his home as “exchange” for a debt her father owed, reviving the dark tradition of “baad,” in which underage girls are given up as payment for differences. Despite armed threats and suffocating intimidation, the underage girl stood her ground and refused to marry her persecutor, leading the governor to pressure the local court, which ultimately imposed an unjust five-year prison sentence on her .
In her 21 months of harsh detention, Bibi—who was imprisoned at 14 and is now 17—has been subjected to inhuman torture in an attempt to break her resistance, experiencing severe psychological trauma while her mother’s health has collapsed. Also outrageous was the authorities’ recent “compromise offer” to marry the 70-year-old for just three days, at a time when the regime has effectively legalized child marriages with the consent of a male relative.
Bibi’s ordeal captures in the most brutal way the “gender apartheid” that the country is experiencing, as while the Taliban celebrate their power with military parades and sporting events strictly forbidden to women, the unyielding dignity of a minor girl is mercilessly punished behind the heavy bars of a prison.
In detention, Bibi is subjected to systematic torture in an attempt to break her will, while the authorities have even proposed an outrageous three-day “compromise” marriage. This situation has caused serious psychological trauma to her and has irreparably damaged her mother’s health, while no independent investigation has been conducted into the case.
The young Afghan woman’s tragedy comes five years after the Taliban returned to power , which legalized child marriage with male consent and completely excluded women from education, work and the public sphere. Images of military parades in Kabul with American loot and men-only sporting events have sparked international outrage. Leading campaigner and member of the House of Lords, Baroness Elena Kennedy , called on the international community to exert immediate diplomatic pressure through allies such as Qatar and India, stressing that this is a totalitarian Middle Ages against women that requires immediate global mobilization.
