Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have issued a draconian decree that makes sodomy punishable by death and allows men to beat their wives so long as they don’t break bones or leave visible, lasting wounds.
Human rights campaigners have decried the move as “devastating” and warned that women’s recourse to justice would be further curtailed. “The men have the right to rule completely the women,” rights activist Mahbouba Seraj told CNN from Kabul. “His word is the word of law – that’s it.”
The decree was issued last month but has only recently come to international attention after it was leaked to the Afghan rights group Rawadari, which published it in the original Pashto. The Afghanistan Analysts Network then translated the document into English. The punishments outlined in the decree have already been widespread throughout the country, but this is the first time that they have been so clearly codified since the United States and its allies withdrew from the country in August 2021, allowing the Taliban to return to power. The Taliban insists that all its rulings are in line with Islamic Sharia law and have religious legitimacy.
The punishment for animal abuse is more severe. The decree says that anyone who forces animals like dogs or cockerels to fight should be sentenced to five months in prison. The decree also permits a father to punish their child for, among another things, failing to pray. The punishment for a teacher who so severely beats a student that a bone is broken is to be removed from their job.
Given that women in Afghanistan are prohibited from leaving the home without a male guardian, activists say the new law will prevent women from seeking justice even in cases of severe physical violence. Afghanistan’s Sharia Law also dictates that a woman’s testimony is worth half that of a man.
Women have seen their rights steadily degraded since the Taliban returned to power. Women are banned from almost all work outside the home. UNICEF estimates that more than two million girls and women have been shut out of education by the Taliban’s ban on them attending secondary school and university. The UN’s top human rights official, Volker Türk, told the Human Rights Council that the decree was “legitimizing violence against women and children, and characterized Afghanistan as a graveyard for human rights. “Afghanistan’s women and girls face extreme gender-based discrimination and oppression that amounts to persecution,” Türk said. “The system of segregation is reminiscent of apartheid, based on gender rather than race.”
