Girl, 14, 'spends two years in prison and is tortured by Taliban after refusing to marry 70-year-old commander'

A teenage girl has spent nearly two years in a Taliban prison, at times suffering torture, after she refused to marry an elderly local commander. 

Bibi Sediqa has spent the last 21 months in a harsh Taliban jail for refusing to marry 70-year-old Mawlawi Khodainazar, an influential commander in Afghanistan's Badghis province, according to the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).

Rukhshana, an independent Afghan media organisation, reported that Khodainazar forced Bibi to move into his home when she was 12 in order to settle a debt her father owed the commander.

Khodainazar is said to have used armed intimidation tactics to try and force Bibi's father to consent to the marriage. But even under duress, she denied his request. 

Though a Taliban court initially ruled in the girl's favour, Khodainazar reportedly lobbied a judge in Badghis to have the case moved to a more advantageous court. 

It was there that a judge imprisoned the young girl under a judgment that her family considers unjust.

Bibi, who was jailed at the age of 14 and is now 17 according to Rukhshana, was sentenced to five years in prison.

During her imprisonment, she has been subject to torture in an effort to wear her down. This treatment, as well as the lack of access to justice, has reportedly left Bibi with severe psychological trauma. 

Her mother has also suffered serious health problems as a result of her daughter's imprisonment. 

Sources told RAWA that Taliban authorities recently proposed a settlement which would see her marry Khodainazar for three days.

But her family have said that no practical steps have been taken and that no independent committee has been appointed to look into the case. 

Since the terror group seized Afghanistan in 2021, Taliban members have been forcibly marrying young girls, taking them away from their family. 

Earlier this year, the Taliban legalised child marriage with the consent of a male relative.

Afghanistan has no clear legal minimum age for marriage. The country has a traditional practice called 'baad', which sees families hand over their young daughters to settle disputes and debts. 

The girls would either become wives or servants. Though it was banned by a 2009 law, the Taliban has since brought it back into practice. 

Last week, the Taliban celebrated five years as the rulers of Afghanistan.  

The commemoration included a Kabul military parade in which Humvee trucks abandoned in the chaotic withdrawal of a US-led coalition force were rolled out as victory trophies.

The authorities also hosted a cricket match and other sporting contests, events from which women and girls were banned even from attending.

Leading women's rights campaigner and Labour peer Baroness Helena Kennedy said Britain should put pressure on allies such as India and Qatar, who maintain contact with the Taliban.

She told Radio 4's Today programme: 'What is happening is gender apartheid. The extremes against women are extraordinary.

'You apply pressure [through] the people who are speaking to, and who are in contact with, the leadership there. You try to drive a wedge between the people who are more progressive and those who are still in the Dark Ages.'

Patriotic music blared across streets as Afghans packed into pick-up trucks and rickshaws in convoys festooned with government flags.

One car displayed a photo of Taliban leader Mullah Omar alongside Osama bin Laden.