British Broadcasting CompanyA younger lady hides underneath a tree between two busy roads, holding a pile of papers to her chest.
These paperwork imply greater than something on the planet to Bibi Nazdana: They’re the divorce settlement she obtained after a two-year courtroom battle to flee life as a toddler bride.
The paperwork are the identical ones which were invalidated by Taliban courts – victims of the group’s hard-line interpretation of Sharia regulation that has resulted in girls being successfully silenced in Afghanistan’s authorized system.
Nazdana’s divorce is one in every of tens of 1000’s of courtroom rulings which were quashed because the Taliban took management of the nation three years in the past this month.
Simply 10 days since they stormed into the capital, Kabul, the person she promised when she was seven years previous is asking a courtroom to overturn the divorce ruling she fought for.
Hekmathullah initially seems to have made his declare to Nazdana’s spouse when he was 15 years previous.
She instantly filed for separation with courts ruled by the then US-backed Afghan authorities, telling them repeatedly that she couldn’t marry the farmer, now in his 20s. It took two years to lastly rule in her favor: “The courtroom congratulated me and stated, ‘You are actually separated and free to marry whomever you need.'”
However after Hekmatullah appealed the ruling in 2021, Nazdana was instructed she wouldn’t be allowed to argue her case in individual.
“In courtroom, the Taliban instructed me that I shouldn’t come again to courtroom as a result of it was in opposition to Sharia regulation. They stated my brother ought to characterize me,” Nazdana stated.
“They instructed us that if we did not observe the foundations,” stated Nazdana’s brother Shams, 28, “they might hand my sister over to him (Hikmatullah) by power.”
Her ex-husband, now a brand new member of the Taliban, received the case. Shams’ makes an attempt to elucidate to the courtroom in her house province of Uruzgan that her life was at risk fell on deaf ears.
The siblings thought that they had no selection however to run away.
When the Taliban returned to energy three years in the past, they promised to root out the corruption of the previous and ship “justice” based mostly on Sharia (Islamic regulation).
The Taliban say they’ve investigated some 355,000 circumstances since then.
Most are legal circumstances – an estimated 40% are land disputes, and one other 30% are household points, together with divorce, as in Nazdana’s case.
Nazdana’s divorce ruling was unearthed after the BBC gained unique entry to the again places of work of the Supreme Courtroom within the capital Kabul.
Afghan Supreme Courtroom media officer Abdulwahid Haqqani confirmed the ruling in favor of Hekmatullah, saying it was invalid as a result of he “was not current”.
“The choice of the previous corrupt authorities to annul the wedding of Hekmatullah and Nazdana violated Sharia regulation and the foundations of marriage,” he defined.
However the promise of reforming the justice system goes past reopening closed circumstances.
The Taliban additionally systematically eliminated all judges, each women and men, and changed them with those that espoused their hard-line views.
Ladies have been additionally declared unfit to take part within the justice system.
Abdulrahim Rashid, director of the international relations and communications division on the Taliban’s Supreme Courtroom, stated: “Ladies will not be certified or succesful to function judges as a result of, based on the rules of our Sharia regulation, judicial work requires folks with excessive intelligence.”
For ladies who work within the system, the loss is heavy — and never only for them.
Fawzia Amini, a former Supreme Courtroom decide who fled the nation after the Taliban’s resurgence, stated there was little hope that authorized protections for girls would enhance with out girls within the courts.
“We performed an necessary position,” she stated. “For instance, the Violence Towards Ladies Elimination Act of 2009 is one in every of our achievements. We’re additionally engaged on the regulation of ladies’s shelters, orphan guardianship and anti-trafficking legal guidelines, amongst others.”
She additionally criticized the Taliban for overturning earlier rulings, like Nazdana’s.
“If a girl divorces her husband and there are courtroom paperwork as proof, then that’s the last verdict. The authorized verdict doesn’t change due to a change of regime,” Ms Amini stated.
“Our civil legal guidelines are greater than half a century previous,” she added. “It was practiced even earlier than the Taliban was fashioned.
“All civil and legal legal guidelines, together with divorce legal guidelines, are based mostly on the Quran.”
However the Taliban say Afghanistan’s former rulers have been merely not Islamic sufficient.
As an alternative, they relied totally on Hanafi regulation (jurisprudence), which dates again to the eighth century, though it has been up to date to “meet present wants” based on Abdurrahim Rashid .
“Earlier courts made selections based mostly on legal and civil regulation. However now all selections are based mostly on Sharia regulation [Islamic law],” he added, pointing proudly to the pile of circumstances that they had already dealt with.
Ms Amini is lower than proud of plans for the way forward for Afghanistan’s authorized system.
“I’ve a query for the Taliban. Did their dad and mom marry underneath these legal guidelines, or underneath the legal guidelines that their sons can have?” she requested.
None of this was of any consolation to Nazdana, underneath a tree between two roads in an unknown neighboring nation.
Now she is barely 20 years previous and has been right here for a 12 months. She has the divorce papers in hand and hopes that somebody may help her.
“I knocked on many doorways asking for assist, together with the United Nations, however nobody heard my voice,” she stated.
“The place does the assist come from? Do not I, as a girl, deserve my freedom?”
