BBCThere’s a younger girl sheltering beneath a tree between two busy roads clutching a pile of paperwork to her chest.
Those items of paper are extra necessary to Bibi Nazdana than anything else on the planet: they’re the divorce granted to her after a two-year court docket struggle to loose herself from lifestyles as a kid bride.
They’re the similar papers a Taliban court docket has invalidated – a sufferer of the crowd’s hardline interpretation on Sharia (spiritual regulation) which has observed ladies successfully silenced in Afghanistan’s prison device.
Nazdana’s divorce is one among tens of hundreds of court docket rulings revoked because the Taliban took regulate of the rustic 3 years in the past this month.
It took simply 10 days from them sweeping into the capital, Kabul, for the person she was once promised to at seven to invite the courts to overturn the divorce ruling she had fought so arduous for.
Hekmatullah had to start with perceived to call for his spouse when Nazdana was once 15. It was once 8 years since her father had agreed to what’s referred to as a ‘dangerous marriage’, which seeks to show a circle of relatives “enemy” right into a “buddy”.
She in an instant approached the court docket – then running beneath the US-backed Afghan govt – for a separation, time and again telling them she may now not marry the farmer, now in his 20s. It took two years, however in any case a ruling was once made in her favour: “The court docket congratulated me and stated, ‘You are actually separated and loose to marry whomever you wish to have.'”
However after Hekmatullah appealed the ruling in 2021, Nazdana was once informed she would now not be allowed to plead her personal case in particular person.
“On the court docket, the Taliban informed me I should not go back to court docket as it was once towards Sharia. They stated my brother will have to constitute me as an alternative,” says Nazdana.
“They informed us if we did not comply,” says Shams, Nazdana’s 28-year-old brother, “they’d hand my sister over to him (Hekmatullah) by way of pressure.”
Her former husband, and now a newly signed up member of the Taliban, gained the case. Shams’ makes an attempt to provide an explanation for to the court docket of their house province of Uruzgan that her lifestyles can be at risk fell on deaf ears.
The siblings determined that they had been left with out a selection however to escape.
When the Taliban returned to energy 3 years in the past, they promised to get rid of the corruption of the previous and ship “justice” beneath Sharia, a model of Islamic regulation.
Since then, the Taliban say they’ve checked out some 355,000 circumstances.
Maximum had been prison circumstances – an estimated 40% are disputes over land and an extra 30% are circle of relatives problems together with divorce, like Nazdana’s.
Nazdana’s divorce ruling was once dug out after the BBC were given unique get right of entry to to the again workplaces of the Preferrred Court docket within the capital, Kabul.
Abdulwahid Haqani – media officer for Afghanistan’s Preferrred Court docket – confirms the ruling in favour of Hekmatullah, announcing it was once now not legitimate as a result of he “wasn’t provide”.
“The former corrupt management’s resolution to cancel Hekmatullah and Nazdana’s marriage was once towards the Sharia and regulations of marriage,” he explains.
However the guarantees to reform the justice device have long past additional than just reopening settled circumstances.
The Taliban have additionally systematically got rid of all judges – each female and male – and changed them with individuals who supported their hardline perspectives.
Ladies had been additionally declared undeserving to take part within the judicial device.
“Ladies don’t seem to be certified or in a position to pass judgement on as a result of in our Sharia rules the judiciary paintings calls for other people with prime intelligence,” says Abdulrahim Rashid, director of overseas members of the family and communications at Taliban’s Preferrred Court docket.
For the ladies who labored within the device, the loss is felt closely – and now not only for themselves.
Former Preferrred Court docket pass judgement on Fawzia Amini – who fled the rustic after the Taliban returned – says there may be little hope for girls’s protections to enhance beneath the regulation if there aren’t any ladies within the courts.
“We performed the most important function,” she says. “As an example, the Removal of Violence towards Ladies regulation in 2009 was once one among our achievements. We additionally labored at the law of shelters for girls, orphan guardianship and the anti-human trafficking regulation, to call a couple of.”
She additionally rubbishes the Taliban overturning earlier rulings, like Nazdana’s.
“If a girl divorces her husband and the court docket paperwork are to be had as proof then that is ultimate. Criminal verdicts cannot trade as a result of a regime adjustments,” says Ms Amini.
“Our civil code is greater than part a century outdated,” she provides. “It is been practised since even prior to the Taliban had been based.
“All civil and penal codes, together with the ones for divorce, had been tailored from the Quran.”
However the Taliban say Afghanistan’s former rulers merely were not Islamic sufficient.
As a substitute, they in large part depend on Hanafi Fiqh (jurisprudence) spiritual regulation, which dates again to the eighth Century – albeit up to date to “meet the present wishes”, in keeping with Abdulrahim Rashid.
“The previous courts made selections in accordance with a penal and civil code. However now all selections are in accordance with Sharia [Islamic law],” he provides, proudly gesturing on the pile of circumstances they’ve already looked after via.
Ms Amini is much less inspired by way of the plans for Afghanistan’s prison device going ahead.
“I’ve a query for the Taliban. Did their oldsters marry in accordance with those rules or in accordance with the rules that their sons are going to put in writing?” she asks.
Underneath the tree between two roads in an unnamed neighbouring nation, none of that is any convenience to Nazdana.
Now simply 20, she has been right here for a 12 months, clutching her divorce papers and hoping any individual will assist her.
“I’ve knocked on many doorways requesting assist, together with the UN, however no-one has heard my voice,” she says.
“The place is the toughen? Do not I deserve freedom as a girl?”
