Outrage after Afghan man, 45, marries 6yo child bride as Taliban say he can’t have her until she’s nine

A 45-year-old Afghan man has caused global outrage after he married a six-year-old girl.

The man, who already has two wives, reportedly paid the little girl’s family money to take her as his bride.

Hasht-e Subh Daily, an independent Afghan media outlet operating in exile, reported the sickening case had even forced the Taliban to intervene.

Sources had said that while the Islamic rulers had made no official comment about the marriage in Helmand’s Marjah district, the Taliban was currently preventing the girl from being transported to the man’s house.

The man has reportedly been told he must “wait until the girl turns nine before bringing her home”.

Child marriages have soared in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, clamping down on women’s rights, including limiting their schooling, work and independence in daily life.

It is especially rife in villages where poverty abounds.

“There are many families in our village who have given away their daughters for money. No one helps them. People are desperate,” said Mahbob, a community activist told The Afghan Times.

Before the Taliban seized back power, Afghan civil law set the minimum age for marriage at 16 years for girls and at 18 years for boys, since they have been in power a minimum age for marriage has not been set.

A UN Women report said 28.7 per cent of girls in Afghanistan under the age of 18 years were married — 9.6 per cent of those aged under 15.

“Statistical modelling shows the ban on Afghan girls education after primary school is estimated to be associated with an increase of the rate of child marriage by 25 per cent. This would put 37.5 per cent of Afghan girls at risk of child marriage,” the report read.

Child marriage has been shown to lead to increased likelihood that a girl or woman will experience domestic violence, have limited access to reproductive health services, and receive only lower levels of education.

Earlier this month the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders, including supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, accusing them of the persecution of women and girls.

The ICC said there were reasonable grounds to believe that Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, chief justice of the Taliban, had committed the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds against girls, women and other persons non-conforming with the Taliban’s policy on gender, gender identity or expression.