The Taliban’s new penal code permits husbands to beat wives and children as long as no bones are broken
Taliban has legalised domestic violence against women and children under a new penal code signed by the Islamist group’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada.
The code permits husbands to physically punish their wives and children, provided the abuse does not result in broken bones or open wounds.
Under the code, a husband who inflicts visible fractures or serious injuries through what is described as obscene force faces a maximum of just 15 days in prison.
To make matters worse, a conviction can only follow if the woman successfully proves the abuse herself in court, all while remaining fully covered and accompanied by her husband or a male chaperone.
The double standard runs even deeper. While a man faces minimal consequences for beating his wife, a married woman can be imprisoned for up to three months simply for visiting relatives without her husband’s permission.
The code also introduces a class-based justice system, dividing Afghan society into four categories: religious scholars, the elite, the middle class, and the lower class.
Under this framework, punishment for the same offence is no longer determined by how serious the crime is, but by the social standing of the person who committed it.
A religious scholar who breaks the law receives only advice. A member of the elite is summoned to court and advised.
A middle-class offender goes to prison. But someone from the lower class faces both imprisonment and corporal punishment.
The new 90-page code has also wiped out the 2009 law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which was enacted under the previous US-backed government.
The Taliban has issued a ruling making it an offence to even discuss the new code, leaving people too afraid to speak out, even anonymously.
Human rights organisation Rawadari, operating from exile, has urged the United Nations and international bodies to immediately halt the implementation of the code and deploy every legal tool available to prevent it from taking hold.
UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, did not mince her words, writing on X that “the implications of this latest code for women and girls is simply terrifying,” and questioning whether the international community would step in to prove the Taliban wrong.
