loading…
Published report Bloombergyesterday said the group’s jihadist commanders had ordered imams in the areas they controlled to bring a list of unmarried women aged 12 to 45 for their soldiers to marry. The group views women in the areas they control as “qhanimat” or “spoils of war”—to be divided among the victors of the war.
Also read: Timeline Taliban Capture 9 Provincial Capitals of Afghanistan in 6 Days
The militias then went door to door claiming their “gifts,” even looking through family cupboards to determine the girls’ ages before forcing them into a life of sexual slavery.
The brutal treatment of women and girls is just the latest sign of the collapse of the Afghan military, which has prompted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to fire his top commander.
A local female journalist described running away from a town in northern Afghanistan, which she did not name, and hiding with her uncle for fear that the Taliban would hunt her down and execute her.
The 22-year-old said she fled “under the noses” of Taliban gunmen in disguise under a burqa and went to a nearby village — but was forced to flee again after informants informed the militants of her presence.
Now he is hiding in a remote location somewhere in the north of the country, and claims to be afraid for the safety of himself and his family. “Will I go home? Will I see my parents again? Where will I go? How can I survive,” he said, asking not to be named because his life was in danger.
Meanwhile terrified locals fleeing the city of Kunduz, captured by the Taliban last week, have recounted retaliatory attacks by the group’s militias that hunt down anyone linked to the government and behead or execute them.
– .
