"I Gave Up My Religion for Gol Andam"

 

This is a condensed translation of a report by Mukhtar Wafayee about Gol-Andam and Rajab, a couple from the Hazara and Pashtun ethnic groups who faced persecution by the Taliban due to their racial and religious differences. Rajab was forced to change his religion in Taliban prison and, after his release, fled Afghanistan.

Gol Andam and Rajab in Mazar-e-Sharif, 2008.

On a sunny day June 2022, amid the bustle of the taxi station, Rajab and Gol Andam sat quietly with their four children, hoping to finally reach safety after 18 years of living on the run. However, before the vehicle could move, armed men surrounded the car, ordering Rajab to get out. Gol Andam was overcome with fear, knowing that her brothers had been relentlessly tracking them with the help of the Taliban. The armed men, who were Taliban police from the fifth precinct in Kabul, placed a black bag over Rajab's head and forcibly took Gol Andam, their children, and her elderly aunt, who was accompanying them to Pakistan, in a military vehicle.

 

Rajab and Gol Andam, a Hazara-Pashtun couple, managed to marry in 2011 after enduring five years of imprisonment and legal battles. Rajab is 50 years old, and Gol Andam is 38. Both originally from the Dolatabad district in Balkh province, they have been on the run for 18 years due to their decision to marry, living in constant fear of persecution.

 

Their love story began in 2005 in two neighboring villages: Alang, home to Shia Hazara people, and Dormane Afghanieh, populated by Pashtuns from the Alizai tribe, who follow the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam. Despite the close agricultural ties between these communities, the families of Rajab and Gol Andam faced significant societal and cultural challenges due to their ethnic and sectarian differences. 

 

When Gol Andam refused her brothers’ decision to marry her off to a man named Arsala, a mentally ill laborer from a poor family, she was subjected to brutal beatings and threats of death. Her injuries from that period remain visible on her face and body, with her right eye blinded and scars marking her forehead and right leg. Fearing for her life, Gol Andam turned to Rajab for help, pleading with him to rescue her from an arranged marriage that she wanted no part of. Despite the vast differences in their age, religion, and ethnicity, Gol Andam saw Rajab as her only chance at escape from her brothers' oppressive control.

 

Rajab and Gol Andam fled their village at dawn in 2005, escaping to Mazar-i-Sharif and later to Kabul. Their escape created a shockwave in their village, quickly spreading as gossip throughout the community.

 

Since that day, 18 years have passed, and Rajab and Gol Andam have been constantly on the run, from one place to another — sometimes from prisons, other times from safe houses, borders, or cities. Over the years of their escape, the couple has had four children, all born while they were in hiding.

 

Now, after spending nine months in a Taliban prison, the couple resides in Iran. They recently shared their harrowing 18-year journey with me.

"When the Taliban arrested me on Friday, June 3, 2022, at the bus station in the Company area of Kabul, they took us to a military compound nearby," Rajab recalls. He, along with Gol Andam, her aunt, and their children, were detained as they tried to flee to Pakistan, fearing Gol Andam’s brothers, who were now collaborating with the Taliban. Before they could board the bus, the family was stopped by armed men.

 

Rajab recounts, "When they started beating me, I asked what I had done wrong. One of the Taliban members said, 'You're a Hazara! How dare you marry a Pashtun woman?'" 

 

He explains that at the Taliban compound, he was hung upside down in a container and tortured. Later, the family was moved to the fifth security district of the Taliban in Kabul. Gol Andam, her aunt, and their children were locked in an abandoned storeroom, while Rajab endured further torture in another room.

 

Rajab describes the brutality: "They gave me electric shocks. They forced a water hose into my mouth until my stomach filled with water, and then someone kicked me in the stomach. Each of them took turns beating me with a cable and hurling insults."

 

Meanwhile, Gol Andam and their children—Narges, 10; Maryam, 11; Leila, 9; and Abbas, 4—could hear the cries of their father being tortured.

 

As Gol Andam and Rajab languished in the Taliban's detention, the situation worsened when Gol Andam's brothers, along with Arsala, arrived in Kabul. Their intention was clear: to drag the couple and their children back to the village for a violent confrontation. The brothers were pleased that, with Taliban assistance, they had captured Rajab and Gol Andam, who had previously been exonerated and legally married under the previous Afghan government’s court ruling.

 

Gol Andam recounts how her brothers contacted her aunt, who was imprisoned with her, before they reached Kabul. They threatened that Gol Andam and Rajab would be killed, but assured the aunt that no harm would come to her.

 

Gol Andam overheard the Taliban discussing Rajab’s execution behind closed doors, a decision not based on any judicial ruling but spurred by her brothers. They had convinced the Taliban that “Commander Rajab” had abducted their sister under the previous regime, and that their children were born out of wedlock. The Taliban, echoing these sentiments, frequently insulted the couple, calling their children illegitimate and mocking the marriage as invalid due to the sectarian divide between a Shia Hazara man and a Sunni Pashtun woman.

 

During their detention in the fifth police district of Taliban-controlled Kabul, Rajab and Gol Andam endured severe hardships. The Taliban denied them even basic needs like water, and the couple's children, especially four-year-old Abbas, faced brutality. Abbas, in a moment of desperation, screamed for his father, only to be struck by a Taliban member, leaving the child bleeding from the mouth. Gol Andam pleaded with the Taliban, even kissing their feet, begging for mercy for her terrified children, but her pleas were met with scorn. The Taliban retorted that her children were illegitimate, born from an unlawful marriage.

 

Since their takeover, the Taliban has repeatedly opposed inter-sectarian marriages, particularly between Shia men and Sunni women. Although some Shia clerics, like Ayatollah Khamenei, have stated that such marriages are permissible under certain conditions, the Taliban has actively discouraged them. In February 2023, Taliban officials in mosques across Mazar-e-Sharif declared such marriages forbidden. Similarly, the governor of the Nasai district in Badakhshan province issued a decree prohibiting marriages between followers of Shia and Sunni Hanafi traditions.

 

 

The ordeal of Rajab and Gol Andam, who were charged with "running away from home," reflects both societal and legal challenges they faced in Afghanistan. In 2006, after fleeing from their village, they were arrested in Kabul and transferred to Mazar-i-Sharif. The previous Afghan government court sentenced Rajab to 18 months and Gol Andam to 12 months in prison, despite her claim that she willingly ran away to escape death threats from her brothers, not abduction.

 

Gol Andam’s brothers had tried to present her as Arsala’s wife, although there had never been a marriage. She boldly challenged the court, pointing out that Arsala couldn't even recognize her. Although their claims were proven false, Gol Andam still faced the stigma of fleeing with a man from a different sect (Hazara-Shia), which was considered dishonorable by her family.

 

After her prison sentence ended, Gol Andam spent four years in a women’s shelter, unable to return home due to death threats from her brothers. In 2010, she petitioned the court to officially recognize her marriage to Rajab, which was eventually done. Their marriage was held in Rajab’s sister’s house, without any of Gol Andam’s family attending. 

 

Following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, Rajab and Gol Andam were again arrested and transferred to Mazar-i-Sharif. This time, Arsala and Gol Andam's brothers filed a new case with the Taliban court, alleging, among other things, that U.S. forces had helped Rajab in abducting Gol Andam.

 

 

In this continuation of Rajab and Gol Andam’s case, Hussein Khan, Gol Andam's brother, accused U.S. forces of intervening to prevent him from taking his sister back to their village twice. He also claimed that Rajab was supported by political leaders such as Mohammad Mohaqiq and Abbas Ebrahimi, making it difficult for him to confront Rajab. These claims were brought before the Taliban courts, where Gol Andam's brothers exploited anti-American sentiments to sway the judges. The Taliban judges, stirred by the accusations of American involvement, expressed strong emotions against Gol Andam, with one even threatening to shoot her for disgracing the Pashtun honor.

 

Despite detailed court records from the 2006 case in the Balkh province, the Taliban judges disregarded the previous rulings, deeming them invalid due to their association with the former government. In contrast, Arsala’s statements to the Taliban courts were contradictory, ranging from claims that he lived with Gol Andam freely to later stating he never consummated the relationship during their engagement.

 

Rajab faced intense questioning during his nine-month detention, primarily focused on his marriage to a Pashtun Sunni woman, given his Hazara Shia background. The Taliban judges continually reminded him that the former Afghan court’s decision to validate his marriage was based on American legal principles, which they rejected. To secure his freedom and protect his family, Rajab eventually declared that he had converted to the Hanafi sect of Sunni Islam after months of study in prison.

 

Rajab and Gol Andam were finally promised freedom, but before they could be released, they received devastating news about the murder of Rajab’s brother, Hussein. Hussein had been a crucial figure in supporting the couple, caring for their children and pursuing their legal case. His murder added immense sorrow to their plight. Despite their eventual release, the couple fled to Iran, where they now live in difficult conditions. Both Rajab and Gol Andam suffer from health issues due to the torture and imprisonment they endured, and their children are traumatized by the years of instability.

 

Gol Andam said, "I love Rajab. We are both satisfied with this marriage, which has been very heavy for us, but in these years, we have not spent a single day in peace due to my brothers."

Gol Andam added that her children have nightmares at night and sometimes wake up in the middle of the night screaming, "Don't imprison us. Don't hit my father."

The children of Gol Andam and Rajab in the mountainous region between Afghanistan and Iran