Forced Marriages Cause girls Escape from Home

  Written by: Samira Haleemzai

Many families in Afghanistan preffer the agreement between boys and girls before their engagements but some families do not pay attention to this issue and it might cause the escape the girls from home.

AEPO’s writer/producer has talked to some people about this issue.

A woman, a resident of Mazar-e-Sharif city, Balkh province says: “my family wanted to engage me to an old man. When I got aware of it, I escaped from Mazar-e-Sharif to Kabul city. I am facing many problems here in Kabul. I am afraid that if I go back home, they might not let me to home.”

Parisa, a resident of Qarabagh district, Kabul province says: “one of my friends’ family wanted to marry my friend to a boy. She was a student and she did not want to be engaged to that boy. She escaped from home with another boy at her henna’s night. The groom’s family married her sister instead of the fiancé and now those two families are the rivals of each other.”

How do people could solve this issue?

Sometimes ago my father wanted to engage me to a boy but I did not agree with that engagement. I talked to my father and said to him how I could arrange my life with a boy that I have not ever seen him and do not know anything about his family. I convinced him to cancel my engagement and he agreed with me to continue my education.”

Muhammad Yasin Fazil, a professor of faculty of Sharia, Ustad Rabbani Education University, Kabul city says: “forced marriages are forbidden in Islam and those who are forced to engage to someone, their engagements are illegal. A Hadis says that there is no allowance to engage a young girl, a widow and a divorced woman without their agreement. A boy and a girl have an equal right to choose their life partner. According to the constitution of Afghanistan, the legal age for marriage is 18 for boys and 16 years for girls, and before these ages, the marriages are called forced marriages and those who engage their daughters before the mentioned ages, are called criminals and might be punished by 10 years prison.”ورکړخو بیا هم یوشمېر کورنۍ خپلې لوڼې په زور نکاح کولو ته اړ باسي، چې دا ډول ودونه یوشمېر نجونې له کور څخه تېښتې ته اړ باسي.

په دې هکله د مالوماتو لپاره ددې اوونۍ د آبادۍ غږ خپرونه اورېدلی شئ:

برنامۀ این هفتۀ صدای آبادی در همین مورد است.