Afghan Former-Child Brides Forcibly Remarried to Ex-husbands Under Taliban Law

Photo depicting an Afghan girl

The divorce cases of ex-child brides in Afghanistan are being reopened under Taliban rule, and in many cases, repealed. When the Taliban became the leading governing force of Afghanistan in 2021, a myriad of laws were altered to fit the standard of Islamic Sharia law. Child marriages are common in Afghanistan, though courts occasionally provide divorces to young girls under 17 who had been married off to men over the age of 21. Due to new Sharia laws, these divorces may be declared void.

On September 29, 2024, BBC interviewed Bibi Nazdana, a former child bride whose divorce was deemed invalid by new Taliban officials. The Taliban government believes the separation of a child bride from her husband to be a violation of Sharia law and has outlawed divorce for tens of thousands of girls across Afghanistan. 

Nazdana was promised to a farmer at seven years old in order to reconcile a political feud. They were married when she was 15, and her husband was well into his 20s. Her separation was initially approved by the courts, but her former husband petitioned the courts to have it repealed after the Taliban came into power in 2021. The repeal was successful and non-conditional. Nazdana’s brother told BBC, “They told us if we didn’t comply they would hand my sister over to him (her former husband) by force.”

Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, over 330,000 former legal cases have been re-evaluated under Sharia law. An estimated 30% of these legal cases regard family issues, including divorce. These cases will be ruled under the new Sharia laws with little to no influence from women, as the Taliban declared all female judges as unfit to participate in the judicial system and dismissed them in 2021. 

Women such as Nazdana are prohibited from representing themselves in court and instead must be represented by a male family member, in this case, her brother. The Taliban relies on jurisprudence dating back to the 8th century to govern such cases, revised to “meet the current needs” of Afghanistan.

Nazdana and her brother fled Afghanistan to an unnamed neighboring country in 2023. Requests to the United Nations have been left unheard, Nazdana says: "I have knocked on many doors asking for help, including the UN, but no one has heard my voice." Many ex-child brides will see the same fate, and very few will likely find justice.