The Taliban, the new rulers of Afghanistan, issued a decree on Friday, announcing a ban on forced marriages of women—which has become rampant amid worsening social and economic conditions—and said the consent of adult women was necessary for marriages. The decree, released in the name of the group’s supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhunzdzada, who has not appeared in public so far, also dictated other codes for marriage.  

Declaring that both men and women should be equal, the decree said, “No one can force women to marry by coercion or pressure.” Reports in the past few weeks suggested families were selling their daughters—in some cases as old as 10 — for forced marriages in exchange for money to feed their families. The country has been going through a severe food shortage.

Interestingly, Afghanistan,  largely a conservative tribal society, had made remarkable progress in the last two decades, almost all of which came crashing when the Taliban stormed into  Kabul in August, and the hardliner extremist group started imposing strict rulers for women again. 

The Taliban, which is in talks with the United States and other Western countries, is reportedly under heavy pressure to preserve the rights of women. However, the group has so far offered little more than empty words of assurances so far. 

Interestingly, the decree issued today, which mandates the consent of adult women for marriages, has not categorically mentioned adult age. 

On widow marriages, the group said they would now be allowed to re-marry 17 weeks after her husband’s death, choosing her new husband freely, adding that a widow would be entitled to receive a dowry from a future husband. In tribal areas in the country, it is a custom to marry a widow to her husband’s brothers or relatives in the event of his death.

On Friday, the group said that the leadership had instructed all ministries and tribal elders to enforce these rules—which, it said, are for women empowerment—across the country (SAM)