KABUL, Afghanistan (FN) — When Alia was told she must marry in her village in Daykundi, she chose instead to flee. Covered head to toe with only her eyes visible, the 19-year-old and her cousin took a taxi hundreds of miles to Kabul, risking Taliban checkpoints that forbid women from traveling long distances without a male escort.
She told her family she was visiting friends, but her real plan was to escape marriage and enroll in an English course. These short-term private classes, available only to those who can afford them, are among the few options left for Afghan girls since the Taliban banned education for girls beyond primary school nearly five years ago.
Alia’s parents once encouraged her dream of becoming a pilot. Now, they tell her marriage is the only path left. She has received proposals and fears being forced into a restrictive household. “If my family don’t force me to get married, I will wait. I will resist it until my very last breath,” she said.
Her story is echoed by Shama, who at 18 was pressured by her mother to marry. Now a mother of two young girls, she mourns the education she lost. “If the Taliban had not taken over, I would have almost finished school by now. I would be close to my dream of becoming a doctor,” she said. Her mother, Kamila, explained she feared Taliban scrutiny if her daughter remained single. “I wanted her to be educated, work and contribute to society. She had so many dreams. But it didn’t happen for her.”
Shama’s younger sister Nora, 18, fears the same fate. “I want to continue my education. It’s like being in prison. I fear going out because of the government, and at home my mother tells me I must get married,” she said.
Since 2021, Taliban officials have offered shifting explanations for the ban, from security concerns to awaiting leadership decisions. This month, deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat deflected questions, pointing instead to the education ministry, which has not responded. Divisions exist within the Taliban, but the supreme leader has hardened his stance.
The United Nations warns that if the ban continues until 2030, more than two million girls will be deprived of education beyond primary school in a country already suffering one of the world’s lowest female literacy rates.
Women recall vividly the day schools closed. “All I did was cry and sob the whole day and night,” Alia said. “When I see men my age who have graduated and are going to university, I feel very bad, I feel like I am burning in hell.”
The Taliban government insists it has supported women in other ways, citing permits for businesses and cases where women were helped to claim inheritance or escape forced marriages. Yet new laws appear to legitimize child marriage, allowing a minor girl’s silence to be interpreted as consent.
On the ground, forced and underage marriages are rising as education remains barred. Many Afghan women feel abandoned by the world. “If we hadn’t been forgotten, then something would surely have been done by now,” Alia said. Nora added, “I often think: why were we born in Afghanistan?”
Kamila, their mother, has a message for mothers elsewhere: “In a world where your daughters are allowed to study and work, let them do it. Let them become independent. Here in Afghanistan, it’s over for us.”
