Story perspectives

100+ Rights Groups Demand Repeal of Taliban Marriage Rule

5/17/2026

Right

Rights Groups Demand

Over 100 human-rights groups demanded the repeal of the Taliban’s Regulation on Spousal Separation (Official Gazette No. 1489).
Regulation treats a girl’s silence after puberty as consent, removing her right to refuse marriage.
It forces girls seeking annulment to prove the marriage, while a husband’s denial is accepted by oath.
Observers linked the rule to rising domestic violence, honor killings and mutilated women since 2021 and urged UN bodies to act.

Summary

Taliban Approves Law

Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada approved the 31-article family law before publication.
Religious courts may annul marriages for zihar, breastfeeding kinship or conversion issues and may impose imprisonment or corporal punishment.
Khiyar al-bulugh permits gender to seek annulment after puberty via court order.
Regulation lets marriage stay if husband converts and wife a People of the Book, orders separation if either refuses, bars beating unless serious injury proven.

Summary

Taliban Bars Women

The Taliban’s policies bar girls from education beyond sixth grade.
Women must stay fully covered, cannot speak publicly or show faces outside the home, removing them from public life.
Gyms, female-only baths and beauty salons are closed, eliminating key social venues for women.
The “walwar” practice has surged, with families selling daughters for cash on looks, health and schooling.
Rural activists say families give away daughters for money, deepening hardship.

History

Historical Context

The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing produced the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, outlining twelve critical areas for women’s rights and the broader global gender-equality agenda. Afghanistan’s Taliban-led 2024 family law, which restricts marital consent, directly contravenes the declaration’s commitments, drawing condemnation from the United Nations and rights groups.

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Rights Groups Demand

Over 100 human-rights groups demanded the repeal of the Taliban’s Regulation on Spousal Separation (Official Gazette No. 1489).
Regulation treats a girl’s silence after puberty as consent, removing her right to refuse marriage.
It forces girls seeking annulment to prove the marriage, while a husband’s denial is accepted by oath.
Observers linked the rule to rising domestic violence, honor killings and mutilated women since 2021 and urged UN bodies to act.

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