‘Her face was beaten in’: how Taliban rule ushered in a new era of women being killed
A Hidden Crisis: Afghan Women Face Deadly Violence Under Taliban Rule
Wanderstayfinder.com – When Liza Shams recorded her final voice messages, she was desperate for justice. The 33-year-old woman pleaded with a relative to pray for her, her words carrying the weight of years of suffering. "There's no end to my days of misfortune," she said in one recording. "Pray that God shames Hasib [her husband, Hasibullah Sarwari] in front of the whole world for what he has done to me." In another message, she described being beaten while pregnant, then isolated for days until injuries left her unable to eat or speak. "I'm a woman, fine, I should not talk about what happens in my home," she explained. "But I can't do this any more."
The Tragic End of Liza Shams
On the afternoon of February 1, neighbors heard Liza screaming and contacted police. Just before this, her father Shamsuddin Shams received a video call from his daughter. Her injuries were devastating: "Her jaw was broken and she could hardly talk," he recalled. Despite her condition, she managed to convey that her husband had beaten her once more. Shamsuddin immediately summoned his two other daughters, who lived nearby. They arrived at the house and transported Liza to Rahmat hospital in Kabul. She died approximately one hour after reaching the hospital.
Medical documentation revealed the severity of Liza's injuries. Her face had been severely beaten, with CT scan findings showing multiple fractures to her cheekbones and sinus walls—an injury pattern consistent with enormous blunt-force trauma. Photographs and physical examination reports from the evening of her death documented extensive bruising, injuries, and swelling across her face and body.
Despite these extensive injuries, the forensic report listed the likely cause of death as ingesting rat poison. An autopsy was not performed at the family's request, which Liza's father stated came from her in-laws. Her husband's family did not respond to inquiries but argued that Liza took her own life, claiming the bruising covering her body was a side-effect of poison.
A System of Impunity
Suicide is frequently listed as the cause of death in Afghanistan when women die in violent circumstances—a designation that typically means no one will be held accountable for the death. Liza's father firmly believes her death was murder.
The Taliban does not collect any data on how many Afghan women are killed each year. The attorney general's office, which used to collate this information, was abolished in 2023. To measure what the state will not, reporters for Zan times, a collective of journalists who work under cover in Afghanistan, collected cases of women killed in 10 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces since the Taliban came to power in August 2021. They drew on 174 instances reported by local media, as well as 57 cases documented directly by the journalists but previously unreported.
The investigation found women across Afghanistan are being killed at home by husbands, fathers, brothers, in a system that all but guarantees impunity for the crime. Many cases are never entered into official records. The team documented 231 cases, of which 53 were declared suicide. The provinces with the highest recorded tolls were Jawzjan (36), Herat (32), Badakhshan (28) and Ghazni (26). The age of victims ranged from girls as young as five to women of 65.
Structural Barriers to Justice
Seven out of ten victims—165 of 231—were housewives with no independent income or institutional standing to pursue a domestic violence case. Most of the cases occurred in the victim's home. Across the dataset, only 58 arrests were recorded. More than one in five were officially declared suicide, even when there was significant evidence of foul play. Only one in four of the 231 killings resulted in any arrest, but even in these cases, the suspect was often released—sometimes just one day after being detained.
The reporters found a number of deaths that according to family or witnesses had resulted from domestic violence, but were being officially recorded as suicides. A healthcare worker in Jawzjan said that many of the dead women that came to hospital and were labelled suicides had clearly been beaten, their bodies covered in wounds and bruises.
Freshta Emady: Another Victim of Domestic Violence
Freshta Emady, 33, a UN agency employee in Kabul, was found dead in her home on 31 May. Her husband reportedly told Taliban police she had killed herself, citing a psychiatric condition. Her family and friends, however, believe she was killed by her husband. Five people who knew her said Freshta, who had been married off at 17, had spent 15 years being beaten, choked and controlled. A colleague said Freshta had described her husband repeatedly strangling her and telling her, "I'll cut"
These cases illustrate a broader pattern affecting Afghan women since the Taliban's return to power. With no comprehensive data collection and a justice system that frequently dismisses domestic violence as suicide, women face deadly consequences with little recourse. The structural barriers—economic dependence, lack of institutional support, and cultural expectations that women should not speak about domestic matters—create conditions where violence can continue unchecked, often ending in tragedy.
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