Guardian Weekly

Female suicides on rise under Taliban regime

First, her dreams of becoming a doctor were dashed by the Taliban’s ban on women’s education. Then her family set up a forced marriage to her cousin, a heroin addict. Latifa* felt her future had been snatched away.

“I had two options: to marry an addict and live a life of misery or take my own life,” said the 18-year-old in a phone interview from her home in central Ghor province. “I chose the latter.”

Since the Taliban took control of

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