The dangers facing women in Afghanistan have escalated thanks to new Taliban rulings. Under the previous Afghan government, some women were granted divorces after proving they were victims of abuse or that their husbands were addicted to drugs.

As of last week, however, the Taliban have vacated these judgments. The effects of their ruling could be catastrophic. Women who remarried after their divorces were granted may now be considered adulterers. Under the Taliban’s draconian justice system , they could be subject to harsh corporal punishment, including publicly administered stoning.

Because Taliban members have previously compelled Afghan women to reunite with their former spouses after nullifying their divorces, many fear all women affected by the new ruling will be forced to return to violent marriages. The World Health Organization found in 2011 that about 90% of Afghan women experience domestic violence. Unfortunately, the numerous shelters where abuse victims could once find safe haven were shuttered by the Taliban as of December 2021. In their absence, endangered women have limited means of escaping intimate partner violence.

The fear emanating from this ruling is not new to Nasrin , whose name has been changed for her protection. Nasrin was granted a legal separation from her abusive husband under the prior Afghan government. In the months following the U.S. withdrawal, she lived in fear of Taliban threats to force her to return to her husband, who wanted to give her 22-year-old daughter in marriage to a Taliban fighter. To avoid losing her daughter, Nasrin fled to Pakistan. She has now overstayed her visa and constantly faces deportation. Like many desperate Afghans, she has run out of money. She is considering smuggling herself illegally into Turkey to protect herself and her daughter. Though Nasrin once held hope of a future through a referral to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, her referral never came to fruition. "I begged many people who have power in the U.S. government, the superpower of the world, to help an Afghan woman," Nasrin told me. "I [am] very disappointed in life."

On Tuesday, the European Union responded to the Taliban’s continued ban on education for girls above sixth grade and their attacks on women’s rights by placing sanctions on two senior Taliban leaders. Their efforts may be too little and too late as Taliban misogyny leaks beyond the country’s borders. Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, volunteer Lark Escobar has received numerous threats of rape and death on Twitter. Most threats come from Taliban members or from Taliban sympathizers. Lately, the onslaught has grown so concerning that Escobar has stopped tweeting information that might identify her to her attackers.

Escobar told me that the gender-based abuse directed against her is typical in Afghanistan’s patriarchal society. Escobar believes the attacks against her are escalating because of the Taliban’s increased use of social media and the fact that "no one is really taking action with teeth [about] gender apartheid."

While Escobar has not stopped advocating for Afghans, she is frustrated by the time required to report each threat to the FBI and Twitter. "One tweet easily wastes an hour … that needs to be spent assisting U.S. government efforts to evacuate allies," work Escobar does for at least 60 hours a week without pay.

The Taliban’s efforts to silence female voices affect Western women working to lift up the Afghan population and push Afghan women into dangerous, and deadly, margins of society. Immediate and strong action must be taken to protect women from a barrage of Taliban attacks on their basic human rights.

Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area and co-host of The Afghanistan Project Podcast, which takes an apolitical deep dive into the tragedy wrought in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.