Afghan Woman Kills Self To Avoid Public Stoning From Taliban For Fleeing Home

A woman in Afghanistan's Ghor province died by suicide before Taliban forces could kill her for running away from home, local media reported citing local Taliban.

According to Khaama Press, the Taliban had planned to stone the woman, who ran away from home with a married man, on Friday, but before that, she took her life to avoid public humiliation. However, the man, with whom she fled, was executed on Thursday, October 13, the officials added.

Afghan Woman Kills Self

Abdul Rahman, the acting spokesperson for the provincial police chief of the Taliban for Ghor, said that the woman was sentenced to publicly stoning due to the lack of a women's prison.

According to the Taliban security official, the woman strangled herself with a scarf, ending her life before she could receive the punishment.

The news comes at the heel of the Taliban imposing several restrictions on women. The Taliban regime which took over Kabul in August last year has curtailed women's rights and freedoms, depriving them of the fundamental rights to non-discrimination, education, work, public participation, and health.

The reports of women running away from home have recently increased in different provinces of the country, while the Taliban government has determined to stone them to death or publicly flog them.

Earlier this year in June, echoing widespread international concern for Afghan women, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet condemned the massive unemployment of women, the restrictions placed on the way they dress, and their access to basic services.

Bachelet added that 1.2 million girls no longer have access to secondary education, in line with a decision by the de facto authorities who took power in August 2021.

“Beyond being right, it is also a matter of practical necessity”, said the High Commissioner. “Amid the economic crisis, women’s contribution to economic activity is indispensable, which itself requires access to education, and freedom of movement and from violence”.

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