Afghan woman hangs herself to avoid being stoned to death in public by Taliban thugs who accused her of running off with a married man
- The 24-year-old woman, named locally as Salima, was caught with married man by the Taliban after she ran away from her home in Ghor Province, Afghanistan
- Salima, who was also married, was sentenced to death for adultery while her lover, identified locally as Sirajuddin, was shot dead by the Taliban
- But Salima was found dead, the day before she was due to be stoned
An Afghan woman has hanged herself to avoid being stoned to death in public by Taliban forces after she was accused of running off with a married man.
The 24-year-old woman, named locally as Salima, was caught with the married man by the Taliban after she ran away from her home in Ghor Province, central Afghanistan, on October 10.
Salima, who was also married, was sentenced to death for adultery and was due to be stoned on Friday, while her lover, identified locally as Sirajuddin, was shot dead by the Taliban.
But Salima was found dead after hanging herself on Thursday, the day before she was set to be stoned to death in public, reports Rukhshana Media. She was buried the next day.
The couple were caught by Taliban forces who were running checks, as under the government’s repressive rules, women travelling more than 45 miles alone must be accompanied by a male relative.
An Afghan woman has hanged herself to avoid being stoned to death in public by Taliban forces after she was accused of running off with a married man (file image)
The Taliban claims that Salima and Sirajuddin were married, but not to one another and they had run away from their homes, reports Khaama Press News Agency.
The Taliban then arrested the couple before they shot dead Sirajuddin after he allegedly tried to escape their custody.
Abolfida Ghor Badri, the Taliban’s spokesperson for Ghor’s police chief, confirmed that Sirajuddin was killed by the security forces.
‘The security forces tried to prevent Sirajuddin from escaping at night,’ Badri claimed. ‘But he was hit mistakenly because it was dark.’
In 2015, a video of a young married woman being stoned to death in a Taliban controlled area of Afghanistan after she eloped with a man went viral.
A video shows the woman, known only as Rokhsahana and believed to be aged between 19 and 21, lying in a hole in the ground as a group of around 15 men hurl stones at her.
Rokhsahana’s family had married her off against her will before she was caught while eloping with another man her age.
In 2015, a video of a young married woman being stoned to death in a Taliban controlled area of Afghanistan after she eloped with a man went viral.
Since taking power in August 2021, the Taliban have imposed repressive rules – especially against women and girls.
In May, the Taliban rulers ordered all Afghan women to wear head-to-toe clothing in public — a sharp, hard-line pivot that confirmed the worst fears of rights activists and was bound to further complicate Taliban dealings with an already distrustful international community.
The decree says that women should leave the home only when necessary, and that male relatives would face punishment — starting with a summons and escalating up to court hearings and jail time — for women’s dress code violations.
The decree, which calls for women to only show their eyes and recommends they wear the head-to-toe burqa, evoked similar restrictions on women during the Taliban’s previous rule between 1996 and 2001.
The Taliban previously decided against reopening schools to girls above grade 6, reneging on an earlier promise and opting to appease their hard-line base at the expense of further alienating the international community.
But this decree does not have widespread support among a leadership that’s divided between pragmatists and the hard-liners.