Taliban demands list of girls above 15, widows under 45 to be married to fighters: Report

The Taliban have issued a diktat reportedly asking Afghan residents to marry off their teen daughters to fighters in the terror group. In a statement shared online, the terror group has directed local leaders to prepare a list of all girls above 15 and widows under 45 to be married as ‘sex slaves’ to the group’s foot soldiers. All the girls and women, as per the Taliban, would be transported to the mountainous region of Waziristan in Pakistan where they would be married to the insurgents, converted into Islam, and reintegrated into the society, The Sun reported.

"All imams and mullahs in captured areas should provide the Taliban with a list of girls above 15 and widows under 45 to be married to Taliban fighters," the letter issued in the name of the Taliban's Cultural Commission read. 

Despite the Ashraf Ghani administration pulling all stops to deter the Taliban, the Islamist Fundamentalist Group is inching closer to re-establishing an Islamic Emirate in the Central Asian state.  In recent weeks, the Taliban have re-imposed repressive laws and other retrograde policies on women that defined its iron fist rule from 1996 to 2001 including enforcing their version of Islamic Sharia law. Earlier this month, Civil society activists in the captured region of Takhar said that Taliban officials have ordered men to grow beards, banned women from stepping out of their homes without a male relative, and have set new dowry regulations for girls. “Taliban insists on trials without evidence” disclosed Merajuddin Sharifi, a civil society activist from the province.

Afghan-Taliban peace talks

Meanwhile, the Afghan government’s negotiator said on July 15 that the Taliban had offered a three-month ceasefire in exchange for the release of 7,000 insurgent prisoners. Nader Nadery told reporters on Thursday that “it is a big demand” while noting that the insurgents have also demanded the removal of Taliban leaders from the United Nations (UN) blacklist. Afghan government’s negotiator made the remarks as Pakistan guards used tear gas on Thursday to disperse hundreds of people who tried to breach a border crossing into Afghanistan.

Image: AP