Overview
- The Taliban regulation, reported Friday by Afghan outlet Amu TV and picked up by international media, recognises child marriages under a code titled Principles of Separation Between Spouses.
- It removes a fixed minimum marriage age by using puberty as the benchmark and says a virgin girl's silence can be treated as consent.
- Article 5 deems a child’s marriage valid if arranged by relatives other than a father or grandfather when the spouse is considered compatible and the dowry fair, with annulment allowed only by court order after puberty.
- The code empowers judges to rule on disputes involving apostasy, adultery, long-missing husbands and a practice called zihar, to annul unions over milk kinship, and to use jail or physical punishment to force compliance.
- Girls face steep barriers to relief in a system that restricts their movement and schooling, and with almost one in three Afghan girls marrying before 18 and about one in ten before 15, campaigners warn the rules will deepen harm.