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A 45-year-old groom allegedly married a six-year-old girl in Afghanistan in a wedding that left even the Taliban “horrified”.
The man, who is already said to have two wives, reportedly paid money in exchange for taking the girl as a bride in a sick case.
The child’s father and the groom were later arrested, but neither of them has been charged.
While the shocking case has sparked outrage, it is understood that the marriage still lasts.
The Taliban, infamous for their harsh treatment of women, allegedly objected to the marriage, advising the groom to delay until the bride reached the age of nine.
Child marriage in Afghanistan has spread more severely under the Taliban’s ban on female education and employment.
A local activist named Mahbob told Afghan Times: “There are many families in our village who have given away their daughters for money.
“No one helps them. People are desperate.”
In Afghanistan, there is no officially set minimum age for marriage, as the Taliban revoked the previous requirement of 16 which was established following the Western invasion in 2001.
By the beginning of the 21st century, most countries around the world enacted laws establishing the general minimum age for marriage at 18 years.
However, in many of these countries, some exceptions allowed marriage before this age with the consent of the parents and/or by court decision.
In some countries, a religious marriage is still recognised by the state authorities, while in others, a registered civil marriage is mandatory.
Earlier this year, Iraq legalised child marriage, with girls as young as nine being able to marry after amendments to decades-old laws.
Changes to Iraq’s personal status law will permit the marriage of girls in their teenage years, or even as young as nine, disregarding the country’s earlier marriage age limit of 18.
The age goes as low as nine because of Ja’fari school of Islamic law followed by many Shiite religious authorities in Iraq.
The Ja’fari school of thought focuses on various aspects of governance, legislation, and judiciary in the country.
It heavily relies on Ijtihad, which is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law.
But Intisar al-Mayali, a human rights activist and a member of the Iraqi Women’s League, said: “This violates their right to life as children, and will disrupt the protection mechanisms for divorce, custody and inheritance for women.”
She also declared that the change “will leave disastrous effects on the rights of women and girls through the marriage of girls at an early age”.
Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) said the proposals served to “terrorise Iraqi women and civil society with a legislation that strips away all the rights that Iraqi women gained in modern times.”
FORCED MARRIAGE IN THE UK
A national Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) was created in 2005, followed by the Forced Marriage Protection Order (FMPO) in 2008 – a form of injunction to prevent contact from perpetrators, stop someone being taken out of the country and prohibit marriage arrangements – and 3,343 of these were issued by the courts to women at risk up to September last year.
The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 made it a criminal offence in England, Wales and Scotland to force someone to marry, including taking them overseas to do so.
It carries a prison sentence of up to seven years.
In February, the legal age for marriage was raised to 18 in England and Wales after a 10-year campaign by the Girls Not Brides coalition, with non-legally-binding traditional ceremonies also banned.
Yet, there are still on average 12 to 15 honour-based murders a year in the UK – and experts believe that is the tip of the iceberg as some families take girls overseas where there is less scrutiny.
A report in May by the Universities of Bristol and Lincoln also warned use of FMPOs can prevent forced marriage but increase the risk of honour-based violence.
Cases Are almost always the culmination of a lifetime of mistreatment, known as honour-based abuse (HBA).
The Home Office says there were 2,887 offences of this type in the year ending March 31, 2022 in England and Wales, and a further 1,871 HBA-related incidents.
Mandatory collection of this data was only introduced in 2019 and there has been an 81% rise in cases over recent years, although this is thought to be down to greater awareness.
