Taliban governor denies Afghan abuse survivor’s divorce request
Developing story first seen 2 hours ago
New details have emerged from the BBC documentary showing Taliban governor Abdullah Sarhadi rejecting an 18-year-old Afghan woman's divorce plea, including the financial dispute at the heart of the case and the governor's own background. The woman's husband is demanding four times the money originally paid for the marriage as a condition of divorce, a sum her family refuses to pay, while Sarhadi has proposed she simply be given her own room in the house and that officials warn her husband against further beatings. Her father has said the family will now pursue the case through the Taliban's court system, though divorce without a husband's consent is notoriously difficult to obtain there. The exchange remains a rare, direct illustration of how Taliban officials wield authority over women's lives five years into their rule.
The report also details Sarhadi's own history: a Taliban military commander in the 1990s, he surrendered in late 2001, spent several years in US detention at Guantanamo Bay, and was later released. Since the Taliban's 2021 return to power he has served as governor of Bamiyan (where he claims to have destroyed one of the province's famous Buddha statues) and, at the time of filming in late June, of Sheberghan in Jawzjan province, before recently becoming deputy commander of a military corps in Kunduz. The wider BBC investigation, built on two years of access to senior Taliban figures, underscores restrictions facing Afghan women, who remain barred from most workplaces, universities and secondary education.
- Husband demands 4x dowry back; woman's family refuses to pay
- Father says the family will pursue divorce through Taliban courts
- Governor Sarhadi is an ex-Guantanamo detainee, now a military deputy commander
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Afghanistan has been ruled by the Taliban since 2021, when the group returned to power after two decades of war. Under their rule, women and girls face severe restrictions: they are largely barred from work, universities and secondary schools, and family matters such as marriage and divorce are typically decided by male relatives or local Taliban officials rather than through independent courts. Divorce is especially hard for a woman to obtain without her husband's agreement.
The BBC has spent two years gaining rare access to senior Taliban figures for a documentary examining how the movement governs. One of those figures is Abdullah Sarhadi, a former Taliban military commander who fought in the 1990s, was later held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay, and has since held senior posts as a Taliban governor and military official in different provinces. His direct involvement in the case of a young woman seeking a divorce offers a rare, close-up look at how individual Taliban officials exercise power over ordinary Afghans' lives.
The case itself involves a young married woman, her family, and her husband, with a dispute over money paid at the time of the marriage now standing between her and a divorce. It matters because it shows, in concrete detail, how decisions about women's rights and safety in Afghanistan often rest with individual officials rather than formal legal processes, and how difficult it can be for women to leave unsafe marriages under the current system.
Coverage
- Daily Mail — Moment Afghan teen begs Taliban official for divorce from violent husband – before he refuses and brands women ‘deficient in intellect’
- BBC World — Divorce, smartphones and control – BBC sees how Taliban run Afghanistan
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