A new Taliban decree on judicial separation of spouses sets rules for ending marriages and includes provisions affecting consent and children. It states that silence by a girl reaching puberty can be interpreted as consent to marriage. It also provides for separation of girls who reach puberty and are married, which is seen as permitting child marriage. The decree allows marriage invalidation when a father or grandfather gives a minor child without sufficient dowry or under certain conditions. It permits a girl to approach a court to cancel a marriage if her husband is not kind or is known for bad choices. It also says that if a girl requests divorce and the husband denies it, the husband’s word is valid without witnesses, with no witnesses needed if the request is made before a judge.
"However, if a girl asks her husband for a divorce and he denies it, “then in this case, there are no witnesses with the girl, the husband's word is valid,” the new law says. She does not need witnesses if she makes the request before a judge. Women and girls already face widespread discrimination in Afghanistan, with laws dictating how they must dress and behave, and they are banned from secondary school and universitie"
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