Taliban’s Shocking New Law: A Girl’s Silence Means She Agrees to Marriage

Afghanistan’s Taliban regime has passed a sweeping 31-article family law formally legalising child marriage and declaring that a young girl’s silence counts as her consent. Human rights groups say this law strips Afghan girls of their last remaining voice.

Taliban Formally Legalises Child Marriage in Afghanistan

The Taliban has introduced a new family law regulation in Afghanistan and it is sending shockwaves across the world. The 31-article document, officially titled “Principles of Separation Between Spouses,” has been approved by Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and published in the group’s official gazette. The law formally recognises child marriage as legally valid and lays down rules that critics say are designed to silence Afghan girls entirely.

The regulation covers a wide range of conditions under which marriages can be dissolved. These include child marriage, forced separation, missing husbands, breastfeeding relations, apostasy, and accusations of adultery. Rights advocates say the most chilling part of the law is what it says about consent.

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A Girl’s Silence Is Now Her ‘Yes’

Article 7 of the new law contains one of its most alarming provisions. It states that the silence of a virgin girl after she has reached puberty can be legally treated as her agreement to marry. A boy’s silence or the silence of a previously married woman, however, does not carry the same meaning. The law treats them differently and that double standard has drawn fierce global condemnation.

Political commentator Fahima Mahomed spoke out sharply against the new regulation. “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. It turns vulnerability into something legally acceptable,” she said.

She also rejected the idea that this law reflects mainstream Islamic values. “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,” she added.

Children Can Challenge Marriages But Only Through Courts

The regulation does include a concept called “khiyar al-bulugh” or the “option upon puberty.” This is a classical Islamic legal provision that allows a child married at a young age to seek annulment once they grow up. However, under the Taliban’s new rules, this can only happen through a court order a process that is nearly impossible for most Afghan girls to access in practice.

Under Article 5, a child marriage arranged by relatives other than the father or grandfather is considered legally valid as long as the groom is socially compatible and the dowry is deemed appropriate. Marriages involving an incompatible spouse or an unfair dowry, the law says, can be invalidated.

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Judges Get Sweeping Powers Including the Right to Punish

The new regulation hands Taliban judges enormous authority over marriage disputes. Judges are empowered to intervene in cases involving apostasy, prolonged absence of a husband, accusations of adultery, and a classical concept known as “zihar” where a husband compares his wife to a female relative whom he is forbidden to marry. Under this clause, judges can force a husband to fulfil religious penalties or grant a divorce. The document explicitly states that judges may use imprisonment and physical punishment to enforce their rulings.

Violence Against Women: Still Not Prohibited

The new law says nothing against sexual or psychological violence toward women. Husbands, according to the Taliban’s rules, are permitted to beat their wives as long as the beating does not cause visible bodily harm. A woman can only seek legal redress if she can prove severe physical injury before a judge. The contradiction here is glaring she must remain fully covered throughout the process and is required to bring a male chaperone, who is likely the very husband who abused her.

“That is not justice: that is a system designed to silence her,” Mahomed told a media outlet.

Leaving Home Without Permission Can Mean Prison

The new code goes even further it stops women from fleeing domestic violence by seeking refuge with their own families. Article 34 states that a woman who repeatedly visits her father’s house or any other relative’s home without her husband’s permission and does not return after being asked faces up to three months in prison. Her family and relatives could also face punishment for sheltering her.

The Numbers Behind the Crisis

The scale of the child marriage crisis in Afghanistan is already staggering. Almost one in three Afghan girls is married before she turns 18 and nearly one in ten is married before the age of 15, according to the charity Girls Not Brides. Regional data paints an even grimmer picture child marriage rates are highest in Ghor (50.1%), Farah (49.6%), Nimroz (48.6%), Badghis (48.2%), Faryab (48.6%), and Herat (40%).

In July 2025, a six-year-old girl in southern Afghanistan was reportedly sold by her father for money with the Taliban advising the buyer to wait until she turned nine before consummating the marriage. No legal action followed.

A Country Where Girls Have No Future

The Taliban returned to power in August 2021 after NATO forces withdrew following nearly two decades of deployment. Since then, the group has imposed wave after wave of restrictions on women and girls. Girls cannot attend school beyond sixth grade. Women are banned from universities. Their movement, employment, and public participation are all severely restricted. A penal code introduced by the Taliban places women and girls on the same legal footing as slaves, human rights groups have warned.

The UN has repeatedly condemned these measures, calling them systematic violations of fundamental human rights. Rights advocates say the new family law regulation is not just another restriction it is the codification of oppression into law, making it harder than ever for Afghan girls to escape a future they never chose.