The Taliban government in Afghanistan has passed a law that effectively removes the minimum marriage age for girls, The Times reported, citing a government document titled “Principles of Divorce“.
The document was approved by Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada. Under the new rules, the right to marry is now dependent on puberty, not age. The document also states that the silence of a “virgin who has reached puberty“ can be considered consent to marriage.
Experts note that this amounts to legalizing child marriage. According to the largest Sunni school of thought, the minimum age of puberty for girls could be nine years old.
Previously, under the 1977 Afghan Civil Code, the minimum age for marriage for girls was 16 years old and for boys 18 years old. The 2009 Law on the Elimination of Violence against Women criminalizes marriage to girls under 15 years old. The new Taliban law completely removes these restrictions.
„This age limit has now been removed. "If a girl reaches puberty at nine or ten, she is considered legally ready for marriage," said Horia Mosaddegh, head of the human rights research organization Conflict Analysis Network (CAN).
The law also stipulates that a girl's marriage arranged by her father or grandfather can only be annulled in certain cases, such as if the husband is considered cruel, mentally ill or "morally corrupt." However, cruelty is not considered sufficient grounds for divorce.
“In other words, even if a husband is cruel to his wife, that in itself is not grounds for divorce.“ "If the husband is abusive, the court will first try to reconcile the spouses, rather than granting the woman a divorce or protection," explained Shahrzad Akbar, head of the Afghan human rights organization Rawadari.
According to her, the main message of the new law is that a woman cannot leave her husband without his consent. According to UNICEF estimates, approximately 28% of women in Afghanistan aged 15 to 49 were married before they turned 18. Human rights activists fear that the number of child marriages will increase after the age limit is removed.
The United Nations (UN) has already expressed "serious concern" about a new law adopted in Afghanistan, which includes provisions on child marriage. It is noted that this code further entrenches discrimination against women and girls. “This undermines the principle of free and full consent and fails to protect the best interests of the child,” the statement said.
Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan has deteriorated sharply. Girls are banned from education beyond the sixth grade, women are banned from university, and restrictions have been imposed on employment, travel, and public participation. The Taliban have also disbanded government structures that protected women, including the Ministry of Women's Affairs and specialized police units to combat domestic violence.
In 2024, Afghanistan banned the construction of houses with windows that face a neighbor's kitchen or other areas where women typically live. As The New York Times reported, after the earthquake that struck Afghanistan on the night of September 1, 2025, many male rescuers did not help women due to a ban on contact between women and men who are not relatives.