Afghanistan Times
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KABUL – In a case that has shocked the world—and even drawn condemnation from the Taliban—a 45-year-old Afghan man has reportedly married a six-year-old girl in Marjah district, sparking fresh outrage over the devastating rise of child marriage in Afghanistan.
According to reports by US-based Afghan outlet Amu TV, the man, who already has two wives, paid the child’s family in exchange for her, in a disturbing example of the practice known locally as walwar, where girls are sold for money based on their appearance, health, and perceived value. The Taliban, despite being responsible for gutting nearly all protections for women and girls since returning to power in 2021, responded by ordering the man to wait until the child turns nine before taking her into his home.
Although both the man and the child’s father were arrested following the incident, neither was charged—a chilling indication of how normalized such abuses have become. Under Taliban rule, Afghanistan no longer has a codified minimum age for marriage. The age of consent is now interpreted through Hanafi Islamic jurisprudence, which often considers puberty—rather than personal choice or legal age—as the threshold for marriageability.
The incident has drawn renewed attention to the human rights crisis unfolding in Afghanistan, particularly for girls and women. Since the Taliban retook control, girls have been banned from secondary education, women have been barred from working in most professions, and even appearing in public without a male guardian or full-body covering is now prohibited.
Rights groups and humanitarian organizations have repeatedly warned that these restrictions are fuelling a surge in child and forced marriages, as families, pushed to the brink by poverty, seek survival by selling their daughters. According to Girls Not Brides, nearly 29% of Afghan girls are married before the age of 18, and nearly 10% before 15. The United Nations has documented a 25% increase in child and forced marriages since the Taliban’s return.
“This isn’t just a women’s issue—it’s a national crisis,” said a women’s rights activist in a recent interview with The Afghan Times. “Families are desperate, and girls are being treated like currency.”
UNICEF, in a statement released earlier this year, warned that the ongoing ban on girls’ education will have catastrophic effects, estimating that if the policy continues, over four million girls will be denied schooling by 2030. The organization also projected a sharp rise in maternal and infant mortality, as the lack of female doctors and midwives leaves millions of Afghan women without basic healthcare.
The Taliban’s response to this case—ordering a brief delay rather than outright punishment—has only intensified fears that child marriage is being tacitly permitted, or even institutionalized, under their regime. As the international community watches in horror, Afghan girls continue to vanish into forced unions—stripped of their childhoods, their voices, and their futures.
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