Taliban's new criminal code (IMAGE: X)
The Taliban has quietly rolled out a harsh new penal code that flips Afghanistan’s legal system on its head. Now, violence is law, dissent is a crime, slavery is back on the books, and women have lost their legal rights—all wrapped up in claims of religious justice.
On January 7, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada signed the “Penal Principles of Taliban Courts,” a set of 119 rules that took effect right away. No public notice. No debate. Just a signature, and it is a law.
People didn’t even hear about it until weeks later, when the Afghan group Rawadari got hold of the Pashto version and sounded the alarm.
That’s when it became clear: the code brought slavery back, gave the green light to private violence, and basically locked down every part of daily life.
The rules are strict. Total obedience to the Taliban’s supreme leader isn’t optional. Disobey, and you risk flogging or jail time. The code goes even further, making it a crime to criticise Taliban officials, keep quiet about any so-called opposition, or even stay silent when others dissent.
Everyday things like talking to a woman you’re not related to, or just questioning someone in power, are now seen as criminal.
The new code also lays out a hard social order. It splits society into four classes, labels people as “free” or “enslaved,” and dishes out even tougher punishments to those at the bottom.
Husbands get the green light to punish their wives with violence, and the law barely recognises domestic abuse as a crime. Even when it does, the punishment tops out at just 15 days in jail.
It doesn’t stop there. If a woman leaves her home without permission, she faces criminal charges. Accusations of apostasy land women in prison. Family members and even private citizens can whip or beat women in the name of “preventing vice.”
Rights groups say these rules turn vigilante violence into the norm. Women lose control over their own bodies, their movement, their beliefs.
But Article 16? That’s on another level. It lets the Taliban leader personally approve executions for at least 11 sweeping categories, all under vague “discretionary punishments.”
You can be executed for resisting the Taliban, holding “un-Islamic” beliefs, practising sorcery, repeated “corruption,” or just running afoul of some undefined moral code.
The wording is loose on purpose. At the end of the day, anyone labelled a threat to “public interest” can be put to death.
The Malala Fund says the Taliban’s new penal code takes the crackdown on women and girls in Afghanistan even further, warning that it cements what they call “gender apartheid” into the country’s laws.
On Monday, the advocacy group said that, combined with the Taliban’s Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, this new code sets up a legal system built to control, punish, and push women and girls out of public life.
“The Taliban’s new criminal code locks in a system that shuts out women and girls from their basic rights: education, safety, freedom to move around, and any role in public life,” the statement read.
The group pointed out that the code allows for physical punishment, deprives due process, and gives more power to officials and even private citizens to force people to comply. It said that women’s movement, voices, and independence are now even more criminalised, while justice for violence against women gets pushed further out of reach.
“A country doesn’t move forward when its leaders and laws force women and girls out of public life and strip away their freedoms,” said Malala Yousafzai, the Malala Fund’s co-founder. “We need to stand together, reject gender apartheid, and hold the Taliban responsible for these crimes.”
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