By Kritika Gangwar
A nation has officially announced the right of husbands to physically assault their wives, reducing women to the status of “property “ or “servants”. This is the lived reality for women in Afghanistan under Taliban control.
They have introduced a new 90-page criminal code, endorsed by Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundaza that would be splitting Afghan society into hierarchical tiers. Religious authorities known as mullahs would come at the top who are reportedly placed beyond the reach of the law and protected from criminal prosecution. The ones that would be treated as subordinate would be beneath them, left vulnerable to the authority and control of the upper ranks.
According to the new criminal code obtained by The Independent, Afghan women are most likely to be affected by the measures. The provisions have been said to have reduced their standing in society to a level akin to “slaves”, permitting the husbands to physically discipline their wives with legal backing. The same treatment would be given to the people categorized as “slaves”, who could be punished by their masters under the same framework.
The criminal code, titled as ‘De Mahakumu Jazaai Osulnama’, has been circulated to courts throughout Afghanistan for implementation. It was issued on January 4, 2026. It consists of three sections, 10 chapters and 119 articles.
Under Article 9, the code is said have classified the Afghan society into four different groups, determining how individuals are treated under the law based on their social category rather than the nature of the allegations. The categories are “scholars” (ulama), “the elite” (ashraf), “the middle class”, and “the lower class”.
The proposed system would mostly base the punishments on social ranks rather than the reality of the crime. As noted by Rawadari, a religious scholar could be released with advice, an elite member summoned and cautioned, a middle class individual jailed and someone from the lower class subjected to both imprisonment and corporal punishment for the exact same crime.
The code provides minimal safeguards for the women, punishing husbands only in cases with severe injuries with a maximum 15-day sentence. On the other hand, women who leave home without permission can be sentenced up to three months. Physical punishment for children remains allowed unless it causes serious harm.