Afghanistan: Man chops off wife’s nose for asking for divorce

The 24-year-old woman was trying to escape an abusive marriage

domestic_abuse Representative image | Shutterstock

A 24-year-old Afghan woman had her nose cut off by her husband on Friday after she sought a divorce from him. The mother of a seven-year-old boy wanted to escape her abusive husband, Reuters reported.

According to Khoshboo Maidanwal, head of the provincial women’s affairs department for the province of Paktika, the husband used a kitchen knife to chop off her nose. There has been a surge in domestic violence in Afghanistan triggered by the coronavirus lockdown.

Maidanwal said her office has registered 13 violent cases of domestic abuse in the past two months.

With forced and underage marriages, honour killings and domestic violence, Afghanistan ranks near the bottom of global indices on gender equality.

According to rights groups, more than 50 per cent Afghan women face domestic abuse at some point in their lives.

During the Taliban rule from 1996-2001, women were banned from getting an education or working. They had to be always clad in a burqa and could step out only with a male companion.

When US-backed forces overthrew the rule of the militant group in 2001, women found some respite by winning some of their freedom back. But now, with uncertainty around intra-Afghanistan peace talks, women fear that they would be restricted to their homes again.

Cases of domestic violence have soared globally ever since nations have gone under lockdown owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Rights watchers say that Afghan women do not have much faith in local police to help them in case of domestic abuse. And though domestic abuse was criminalised in Afghanistan in 2009, it is still not considered a serious offence.