The Taliban has introduced a new family law with no minimum age for marriage, prompting warnings from rights groups that the rules risk normalising child weddings in Afghanistan. The new regulation describes procedures through which a marriage involving a child could be annulled after the individual reaches puberty, but it also grants wide authority to familial patriarchs over child marriages and upholds strict guardianship.
The Taliban has introduced a new family law with no minimum age for marriage , prompting warnings from rights groups that the rules risk normalising child weddings in Afghanistan.
UN Women's special representative in Afghanistan, Susan Ferguson, said the new legislation represented 'another serious development' in the erosion of women's rights nearly five years after the group returned to power. The agency warned the rules failed to establish a minimum age for marriage and mark a departure from laws in force before the Taliban takeover in August 2021, when Afghanistan criminalised forced child marriage.
According to UN Women, the new regulation instead describes procedures through which a marriage involving a child could be annulled after the individual reaches puberty. The 31-article regulation called 'Principles of Separation Between Spouses' outlines rules governing the dissolution of marriages under an endless list of religious and legal conditions. These include child marriage, breastfeeding relations, forced separation, missing husbands, apostasy and accusations of adultery.
Significant attention is given to the section on 'khiyar al-bulugh' ('option upon puberty'), an Islamic legal provision that allows for the annulment of a marriage contracted during childhood once the person reaches puberty.
According to Article 5, if a child's marriage is arranged by relatives other than their father or grandfather, it is legally valid provided the spouse is socially compatible and the dowry is appropriate. The rules also grant familial patriarchs wide authority over child marriages, but state that marriages may be invalidated if guardians are considered abusive, mentally unfit or morally corrupt. Several provisions uphold strict guardianship, notably Article 7, which establishes a double standard for marriage consent.
The document states that the silence of a 'virgin girl' is interpreted as consent to marriage, whereas the same silence from a male or previously married woman is not. The regulation also gives Taliban judges broad powers to intervene in marital disputes regarding issues such as apostasy, 'turning away from Islam', prolonged absence of a husband and accusations of adultery. It specifically mentions 'zihar', a classical Islamic concept where a husband compares his wife to a forbidden female relative.
Under this section, judges can force husbands to fulfil religious penalties or grant divorce. They may use imprisonment and physical punishment to enforce compliance. The text also covers marital restrictions under Islamic law regarding 'milk kinship'. Because children breastfed by the same woman are considered siblings, regulations permit judges to annul marriages if this relationship is discovered between spouses.
Parwana Malik, nine, was sold by her parents to a stranger who the youngster describes as an 'old man' due to his white beard and eyebrows. The new rules come as the Taliban continue to impose oppressive restrictions on women and girls since returning to power in August 2021. Since regaining control, the Taliban have banned girls from studying beyond sixth grade and imposed extensive restrictions on women's work and movement.
Earlier this year, the Taliban introduced a new penal code creating a caste system which puts women on the same level as 'slaves'. As part of the new law, husbands are permitted to beat their wives as long as there is no serious bodily harm.
Article 32 states that only if the husband beats the woman with a stick and this act results in severe injury such as 'a wound or bodily bruising', and the woman can prove it before a judge, will the husband be sentenced to fifteen days' imprisonment. However, the contradiction lies in that a woman must remain fully covered while simultaneously proving her injuries to a judge.
She is also required to be accompanied by a male chaperone, which is usually the husband himself
Taliban Family Law Minimum Age For Marriage Child Weddings Rights Groups UN Women Susan Ferguson Islamic Law Milk Kinship Zihar Castes Women's Rights Oppressive Restrictions Banning Of Education Restrictions On Work And Movement Beating Wives Penal Code
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