Domestic violence now legal in Afghanistan as Taliban issue troubling new laws

Afghanistan has ‘legalised’ domestic violence in a troubling crackdown on women’s rights. 

A new 90-page penal code introduced by the Taliban allows husbands to physically punish their wives and children – as long as the abuse does not result in “broken bones or open wounds”. 

Under the new laws, a husband faces a maximum of just 15 days in prison in cases of “obscene force”, such as visible fractures or injuries. Convictions will be sought only if the wife can successfully prove the abuse in court. 

A married woman can also now be jailed for up to three months if she visits her relatives without her husband’s explicit permission. 

The law uses language effectively treating wives as the “property” or “slaves” of their husbands, and strips away vital protections, such as the 2009 law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW), which was introduced during the previous US-backed regime. 

Campaigners from exiled Afghan human rights group Rawadari, who obtained a copy of the Taliban’s new penal code, warned in a statement that it would legitimise the “abuse, maltreatment, and punishment” of women and children – and expose them to “continued domestic violence”. 

Its new limits on women’s rights to see their families also removes one of the few protections available in a country where there are few “formal and legal remedies”, they added. 

Rawadari demanded the “immediate halt of the implementation of the criminal procedure code” by the Taliban courts, and called for the international community, the United Nations, and “other relevant international bodies” to “utilise all legal instruments” to prevent it coming into force.