Taliban’s New Divorce Law Raises Alarms Over Child Marriage and Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

The Guardian has reported that the Taliban government, through a newly enacted divorce regulation, has implicitly legalized child marriage while imposing severe legal restrictions on Afghan women and girls.

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Under this law, if a girl claims to have been forced into an early marriage, she will have no right to request a divorce or access justice if her husband opposes her claims or if she remains silent due to coercion. This aspect has drawn deep concern from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which describes it as another step towards erasing women’s autonomy.

Human rights activists warn that this law, alongside the prohibition of girls’ education, exacerbates the already troubling statistics of forced marriages below the age of 18, which have now exceeded 60%. This situation places victims at an increased risk of deadly domestic violence, especially in the absence of supportive institutions.