Several human rights and women\u2019s rights organizations have expressed serious concerns over the Taliban\u2019s \u201cSpousal Separation Regulations,\u201d stating that the document legitimizes the marriage of children underage. On Saturday, May 16, these groups warned that the provisions of this regulation could perpetuate fundamental violations of women\u2019s and children\u2019s rights in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
The joint statement highlighted that Article 5 of the regulation, by formalizing the marriage of minors, exposes children to being treated as mere commodities, an act which, according to them, carries severe physical and psychological consequences for the children involved. The signees emphasized that such an approach institutionalizes structural violence against children.<\/p>\n
The organizations also criticized Articles 2 and 8, explaining that under these provisions, the right to annul a marriage upon reaching puberty is revoked. They argued this forces children to accept decisions made by their guardians during their minority.<\/p>\n
Article 7 was also condemned, as it stipulates that the silence of a virgin girl upon reaching puberty can be interpreted as ‘consent,’ a clause activists say paves the way for forced marriages.<\/p>\n
Signatories further referenced Article 9, in which the burden of proof lies with the girls, and a husband’s oath is given credibility in cases of dispute. They believe this mechanism makes it more difficult for victims to access justice and shifts the legal balance against women and children.<\/p>\n
These activists have called on international human rights bodies, including the United Nations, UNICEF, and the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, to take immediate and effective action against these legislations and to protect the fundamental rights of women and children in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Human rights groups condemn Taliban\u2019s marriage code for legalizing child marriage and restricting women\u2019s rights in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-politics","category-top-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}