U.S. officials at the State Department are concerned about Afghan girls being presented by much older male refugees as their "wives."
The U.S. State Department has requested "urgent guidance" from other agencies for concerns over child brides who were brought to Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, as well as reports about Afghan girls at an Abu Dhabi transit site saying they were raped by older men who they were forced to marry. U.S. officials detailed these reports in an internal document obtained by the press.
According to the Christian Post, the situation report titled "Afghanistan Task Force SitRep No. 63" was sent on August 27 to all U.S. embassies and consulates abroad and military command centers in Florida. The document detailed, "Intake staff at Fort McCoy reported multiple cases of minor females who presented as 'married' to adult Afghan men, as well as polygamous families. Department of State has requested urgent guidance."
The Associated Press reported that U.S. officials in the United Arab Emirates have found similar reports, calling upon Washington to warn that some young Afghan girls had been forced into marriages just to escape Afghanistan when it fell under Taliban rule.
Officials familiar with the diplomatic cable spoke of allegations by several Afghan girls at the Humanitarian City in Abu Dhabi claiming to have been sexually assaulted by their "husbands" and sought guidance on how to address these cases.
Currently, there are about 50,000 Afghans being admitted to one of eight military bases across the country, including Fort McCoy, Fort Bliss in Texas, Fort Lee in Virginia, and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. About 1,000 have been resettled or relocated off military bases and up to 10,000 were flagged for additional security screening due to "possible ties to the Taliban or terror groups," NBC News reported.
Meanwhile in Afghanistan, the Taliban promised to respect women's rights to work and education, but many are weary that they will be subjected to life at home, childbearing, and tending to household chores. The Guardian reported that "increasing evidence from across Afghanistan that the biggest changes may be in messaging, rather than ideology," as women who protested in Herat had been removed from their jobs.
There also has been reports about gunmen ordering female bank tellers out of their jobs in Kandahar. The Taliban themselves have asked women to stay home for "security reasons."
The report added that the situation is dire for women who were left in Afghanistan, as "there are signs of a return to something worryingly close to the hardline restrictions of the past across other areas of Afghan life."
Women continue to protest against the new Taliban government, which already said that no woman can hold a cabinet level position. The women's protests were also met with pushback, with some Taliban fighters ripping up placards and attacking a male ally.
