Muslim country issues sick 'silence is consent' decree – so old men can marry young girls

Afghanistan’s new decree legitimasing child marriage and making it so a girl’s silence is treated as consent has been slammed. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has criticised the move by the country’s de facto authorities, calling it a “grave and systematic violation of international human rights law”. According to a document named “Principles of Separation Between Spouses”, the ruling sees the silence of a girl who has reached puberty can be interpreted as marital consent.

“Puberty cannot be considered a basis for adulthood or legal capacity to marry,” the UN said. It added: “Child marriage constitutes not just a harmful practice but a fundamental violation of rights. It exposes girls to heightened risks of violence, exploitation, early and forced pregnancy, interrupted education, and long-term physical and psychological harm,” the Committee added.

“Any legal framework that normalises or facilitates the marriage of children violates their rights, undermines their inherent dignity and deprives them of their autonomy and future opportunities.”

Generally, puberty begins between the ages of eight and 13 in girls.

The legal age for marriage had been 16 for girls and 18 for boys, Afghanistan’s 1977 Civil Code stated, according to the Times.

The UN said: “These measures have deprived millions of Afghan girls of their fundamental rights, weakened their future economic and social participation, and deepened poverty and inequality across the country.”

The international body called on the Taliban to immediately repeal “all measures that violate the rights of children, to unequivocally prohibit child marriage, and to restore the rights of all girls to education, protection, equality, and full participation in society, in accordance with Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights law and the Child Rights Convention and its Optional Protocols”.

Child marriage is a form of forced marriage, given that children “inherently lack the capacity to give full, free and informed consent to marriage”, it added.