The Taliban has formally legitimized child marriages under a twisted new family law decree that sets out rules for marriages involving minors — treating the girls as sellable property.
It also establishes specific guidelines governing “virgin girls,” reported Afghan outlet Amu TV.
Approved by Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, the 31-article regulation — titled “Principles of Separation Between Spouses” — was published in the regime’s official gazette in mid-May.
In Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, girls can effectively be sold before they are even old enough to walk.
Desperate families, crushed by poverty, routinely strike “marriage” deals involving infants as young as 20 days old, exchanging their baby daughters for cash to pay debts or simply survive another day.
The price of a child bride reportedly ranges between $500 and $3,000, report human rights groups.
Nearly one-third of Afghan girls are married before the age of 18, according to the charity Girls Not Brides.
Under the Taliban’s horrifying new rules, a female child legally married to an adult man may later seek an annulment “upon puberty” — but only if a Taliban court approves it.
Even worse, the regulations state that the silence of a “virgin girl” may be interpreted as consent to marriage.
The decree lays out the rules for dissolving marriages under a maze of religious and legal conditions, including child marriage, missing husbands, forced separation, breastfeeding relations and accusations of adultery.
The regulations give power over child marriages to fathers and grandfathers, claiming the marriages could be overturned if the guardians are considered abusive, mentally unfit or morally corrupt.
Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban regime has imposed what many international observers describe as a gender apartheid system against women and girls, report many humanitarian groups, such as Amnesty International.
The Taliban’s legal code reportedly does not prohibit sexual or psychological violence against women, reports British outlet GB News. Reports also state husbands are permitted to beat their wives, provided it does not leave obvious bodily harm.
“Child marriage is not marriage in any meaningful sense. A child cannot properly consent, and treating silence as consent is dangerous because it removes a girl’s voice completely,” political commentator Fahima Mahomed told the outlet.
“As a Muslim, I would also strongly reject the idea that this reflects Islam as a whole. The Qur’an itself speaks against compulsion and mistreatment of women, so the Taliban’s position should not be presented as ‘Islamic law’ in a broad sense.
“It is their political and extremist interpretation, enforced through power and fear.”
