Afghanistan's Taliban government has issued a 31-article decree governing the separation of spouses, drawing sharp criticism from the United Nations and human rights activists for stripping women of key divorce protections and implicitly permitting child marriage. The decree, approved by Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and published in the country's Official Gazette, makes divorce procedures significantly harder for women than for men — including barring a woman from seeking separation solely on grounds of her husband's prolonged absence or failure to provide financial support — while a provision allowing relatives to conclude marriage contracts on behalf of minors has been interpreted by UN officials as a legal recognition of child marriage. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) expressed grave concern, calling the law "part of a broader and deeply concerning trajectory" that denies Afghan women and girls autonomy and access to justice; the Taliban government dismissed the criticism as coming from those "hostile" to Islam.