A member of the Taliban murdered a 15-year-old girl and her Iranian-Kurdish mother after he failed in his attempt to abduct the teenager for a forced marriage, an informed source told The Jerusalem Post after information was published by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network on Monday.
Sara Yousefi and her mother, Chiman Hosseinzadeh, were said to have been killed by Mufti Mohammadullah, head of the Taliban’s Hajj and Endowments Department in Kohistanat district, when he attempted to take the young girl on May 8.
When Hosseinzadeh began resisting the attempted abduction, it was said that Mohammadollah opened fire on the pair.
“The gunshot wound to Sara’s chest also indicates that the perpetrator fired deliberately and with the intent to kill,” the source said.
Mohammadollah allegedly assaulted both Yousefi and Hosseinzadeh prior to the killings, the source continued, stating that the teenager’s face showed visible signs of injury and the house was left in a state that indicated there was a physical altercation.
The source added that Mohammadollah had already been married three times before seeking the hand of Yousefi, though the status of his three prior marriages remains unclear.
Murderer arrested, but family lives in fear of his influence
The teenager’s father had allegedly accepted Mohammadollah’s proposal “due to financial motivations,” though her mother did not approve. According to the source, Hosseinzadeh was allegedly restricted from traveling to Iran, and before the two women’s deaths, relatives were contacted and asked to help her and her daughter return to her homeland.
The mother and daughter were buried last week in Kahriz-e Sardar in Bukan.
Though the alleged perpetrator has been arrested and judicial proceedings are reportedly underway, the source told the Post that the victims’ family feels unsafe traveling to Afghanistan to oversee the legal process out of fear of Mohammadollah’s influence and power.
“They have little confidence that justice will be delivered through the Taliban’s courts and judicial system,” the source claimed, adding that the family had engaged with diplomatic channels in hopes of pressuring the Taliban to follow through on the proceedings.
“However, it does not appear likely that justice will ultimately be achieved in this matter,” the source said.
The murder of Yousefi and Hosseinzadeh comes amid a wider crackdown on the rights of women in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Since the terror group seized control in 2021, women have been stripped of many of the freedoms they enjoyed under the legitimate government.
Girls around the age of 13 are banned from continuing to secondary school, women have been banned from attending universities, and the United Nations has warned that child marriages are expected to surge by 25% through 2026.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) also raised concern earlier this week about reports of women being detained for failing to comply with “dress requirements” set out by the Taliban. Local media reported that 21 women and girls were detained in Herat province.
UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett said on Tuesday that protests had broken out in Herat in response to the arrests and that he had seen reports suggesting the Taliban was using “excessive use of force” to suppress the demonstrations.
Under the Taliban’s morality law, a woman’s face is considered awrah (intimate parts of the human body), so women are forced to wear clothing that fully covers their faces.
“UNAMA is concerned over multiple arrests and detentions of women in Herat...for alleged non-compliance with dress requirements, which raises serious human rights concerns,” UNAMA wrote in a post on X/Twitter late on Sunday.
“We remind the de facto authorities that all people have the right to freedom of movement and that all persons, both women and men, are entitled to equality before the law.”