The Taliban, by endorsing and enforcing a new criminal code, have altered the punishment for domestic violence in a way that critics say effectively legitimizes violence against women and children.
The Daily Mirror reported on Sunday night, February 15, that under a 90-page version of the Taliban’s criminal code published by the human rights group Rawadari, physical violence is considered a crime only if it results in a “broken bone or open wound.”
According to the report, in other cases, corporal punishment of a wife or children by a husband or head of household is not deemed prosecutable.
The code states that if “undesirable force” is used and causes visible injury such as a fracture, the maximum penalty is only 15 days in prison.
Legal prosecution is also conditional on a woman being able to prove the violence in court, a requirement that, given existing restrictions, women’s rights activists say effectively makes access to justice impossible.
The regulation further stipulates that a married woman who visits her family without her husband’s explicit permission may face up to three months in prison, a provision that has sparked widespread reaction.
Following the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Law on the Elimination of Violence against Women (EVAW), enacted in 2009 under the previous government, was effectively repealed, and the institutions established to support it were dissolved.
Rawadari has warned that the new framework “legitimizes abuse, harassment and punishment” of women and children, exposing them to ongoing domestic violence.
The group has called on the Taliban to halt implementation of the code immediately and urged the international community and the United Nations to use existing legal mechanisms to prevent it from taking effect.
Meanwhile, Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, described the consequences of the law as “terrifying” and questioned whether the international community would take action to stop its enforcement.
