Afghan women and girls were forced into marriages in order to escape the country as it fell to the Taliban, report says

Afghan refugees seen in Abu Dhabi.

GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images

• Women were forced into marriages in order to flee Afghanistan, CNN reported, citing officials.
• The report said families paid thousands of dollars to have men marry or pose as husbands for women.
• Women's rights were largely taken away the last time the Taliban was in power in the 1990s.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Some Afghan families forced women and girls into marriages at Kabul's airport to secure them safe passage out of the country after the Taliban takeover last month, according to a report from CNN.

Two sources familiar with the matter told CNN that US officials processing Afghan refugees in the United Arab Emirates wrote a diplomatic cable on the issue recently.

The cable said that there were some instances of women and girls who were forced into marriage with men who were on the list of evacuees, or arrived in the UAE with men posing as their husbands to get out of Afghanistan, according to CNN.

CNN reported that families paid eligible men thousands of dollars to marry or pose as husbands for women to flee. The report said it was unclear how widespread of an issue this was.

The State Department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Women suffered under the last Taliban regime in the 1990s, where they weren't allowed to go to school or hold jobs.

The Taliban has hinted that they may be more open to women's education and roles in society now that they are back in power, but many Afghan women remain skeptical and have sought to escape the country.

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