Changing Social Norms around Age of Marriage in Afghanistan: Data on Repression and Resistance under the Taliban

"Being stripped of their right to education has also stripped girls of their right to speak up within their family and resist early and forced marriage." (focus group participant, Kandahar)

Child, early, and forced marriage is underpinned by patriarchal norms and gender inequality. It is also exacerbated by crises, as it becomes a coping mechanism to reduce a household's economic burden and to protect its girls. This ODI report explores how changing social norms around child marriage in Afghanistan are connected to repression by the Taliban, which seized power immediately when the United States and coalition forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021.

Under the Afghan civil code, marriage is illegal for girls under 16 and boys under 18. However, the Taliban have issued an edict stating that marriage is now governed under Shariah laws. It is widely understood to prohibit forced marriages but permit the marriage of girls after they reach puberty.

The report draws on data collected by BISHNAW (meaning "listen" in Dari), an initiative of the Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies (DROPS). Founded in 2014 in Kabul, DROPS is an interdisciplinary and independent research-oriented non-governmental organisation (NGO) operating from Canada. DROPS administered a representative survey to 2,799 women in 11 provinces using both online and in-person tools and held 11 online focus group discussions (FGDs) with women to explore the survey findings.

The research asked 4 questions to probe norms related to age at marriage for girls:

1. At what age do most people in your community think girls should be married? Almost 63% of the youngest cohort (aged 18 to 25) said their community saw the preferred age of marriage as being above 18, compared to only 37% of the oldest cohort (aged 60+).
2. If a girl is not married by this age, what would the community's likely response be to her and her family? A combined total of 48% of respondents said that if a girl does not marry by the socially approved age, it will have negative repercussions for the family - as the girl will be seen as an economic burden, or her family will stand out negatively as "different".
3. At what age do you think girls should be married? Most respondents aged 18 to 59 think the appropriate age for marriage is between the ages of 18 and 25 years.
4. In the past year, do you know of any family in your community that married its daughters atan age that you believe was inappropriate? About 69% of the total sample responded "Yes".

The FGD data, based on the views of participants who were predominantly aged 20 to 35, support the quantitative survey results, indicating a norms shift among younger people around the age of marriage. For example:

• The Republic period (2001-2021) in Afghanistan saw the government adopt strong policy initiatives for women in response to advocacy by Afghan women activists and politicians, and with support from the international donor community. Thus, before the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, there was growing acceptance of girls not marrying until they were over 18. The data suggest that this norms shift was gaining traction, particularly among young women with at least a secondary education.
• However, Taliban edicts are reinforcing structural drivers of early and forced marriage. For instance, the lack of opportunities for education and employment that granted women and girls more autonomy around decisions regarding marriage is impacting social norms in Afghanistan. Without economic or educational prospects, families face a real dilemma. A climate of insecurity fuels fears that unmarried daughters will be forcibly married to Taliban members. This reality is leading families to marry off their daughters below a preferred age as a way to protect them from this fate.
• Since there are no government or civil society organisations where a girl can find help to prevent a marriage, respondents suggest that families may listen to imams, as religious authority figures, if they support delaying a marriage.
• Afghan women continue to resist repression in their everyday lives. They report a mosaic of low-level, clandestine activities that bring hope and resist oppression, centred on education, income generation, and solidarity networks. Girls attend secret or online schools, for example. Participants warn against both the normalisation of Taliban ideology among the population if gender persecution is allowed to persist and against international acceptance of the regime.

Recommendations include:

• Community-based groups should facilitate dialogue and discussion within families to support the alignment of marriage practices with positive changes in individual beliefs about marriage norms.
• Afghan women's rights activists in the diaspora must continue their advocacy to address the root causes of violence and discrimination against women and girls.
• Continuing support to girls' education is key to resisting early marriage: Education builds daughters' agency and voice in the decision-making around their own futures.
• International actors must keep the interests of women and girls central to negotiation processes with the Taliban.
• Assistance to support economic security may mitigate the drivers of early marriage in families and communities.