A man in Tajikistan has been charged with driving his wife to commit suicide amid allegations he pressured her into taking virginity tests and then demanded a second bride after disbelieving the results.
Rajabbi Khurshed, 18, killed herself by drinking a lethal dose of vinegar 40 days after her wedding to 24-year-old Zafar Pirov, who she had never met before the arranged marriage.
Despite her passing a government-required prenuptial exam - including a virginity test - Pirov admits he took his bride for a further two tests, both of which she passed and both of which he did not believe, before casting her out.
Speaking to Radio Free Europe, Khurshed's family - who arranged the coupling - said their daughter told them on her deathbed that she had felt under massive pressure to accept Pirov's demands for a second wife and 'couldn't take it any longer'.
But in his defence, Pirov said: 'My wife gave me a written statement that she allows me to get a second wife because she wasn't a virgin when we got married.'
Kurshed's mother Fazila Mirzoeva is so upset about her daughter's death - who she said is a victim of 'slander and violence' - that she has pleaded to the country's president, Emomali Rahmon, for help.
She said Kurshed, from the village of Chorbogh, had never had a boyfriend and had never had sex with anyone before the marriage.
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