The Taliban has passed a law that allows men to beat their wives as long as it does not cause “broken bones or open wounds”.
According to The Telegraph report, its said had obtained the 60-page penal code – signed by Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban supreme leader, and distributed to courts across Afghanistan – which classifies spousal beatings as “ta’zir” – discretionary punishment – rather than a criminal act.
A husband may strike his wife and children freely, provided the violence does not leave visible bone fractures or open wounds.
Even where serious injury can be proven, the maximum sentence is 15 days in prison.
The law is written to ensure that the bar is almost never met.
To pursue a complaint, a woman must present her wounds in person to a male judge while remaining fully veiled and accompanied by a male guardian.
In the majority of domestic violence cases, that guardian is the husband who committed the beating.
There is no provision in the code prohibiting physical, psychological or sexual violence against women.
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Since the Taliban’s return to power, the government under Hibatullah Akhundzada has completely eroded women’s rights.
Article 34 says that a woman who goes to her parents’ home without her husband’s permission – even to escape violence – faces up to three months in prison. Family members who shelter her face the same sentence.
The code dismantles the legal framework established under Afghanistan’s previous government, including a 2009 law that criminalised forced marriage, rape and gender-based violence and imposed sentences of between three months and one year for domestic abuse.
The code explicitly distinguishes between “free” citizens and “slaves.”
The requirement to bring a male chaperone to court – where that chaperone is, in most cases, the abuser – makes justice structurally impossible.
The criminalisation of fleeing to a parent’s home makes escape structurally impossible.
The Taliban has since ruled that discussing the penal code is itself a criminal offence.
Narges, a former university student in western Herat, told The Telegraph: “The world has always shown its unjust side to us. I do not feel like I am living, and this feeling is shared by everyone I know.”
She added: “Our life is more like a constant resistance against everything out there. No one sees us. No one cares about us.
“This new law is not just a law – it is making our bodies their field of control. No one would see our pain unless our bones are broken. They are legalising fear. We are living in fear and silence.”
The penal code says a husband may strike his wife and children freely, provided the violence does not leave visible bone fractures or open wounds.
Women have already been ordered to cover their faces “to avoid temptation and tempting others” and refrain from speaking in the presence of unfamiliar men who are not husbands or close relatives.
Afghan women have also been ordered not to speak loudly inside their homes, to prevent their voices from being heard outside.
Women who defy the new rules will be arrested and sent to prison, the Taliban said.
In July 2024, a United Nations report said the ministry for promoting virtue and preventing vice was contributing to a climate of fear and intimidation among Afghans through its edicts and the methods used to enforce them.
However, in recent months, there have been increasing signs of discord from within the ranks of the Taliban as it tries to transform itself from a guerrilla force to a functioning government.
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