Taliban Legalizes Child Abuse and Slavery, Human Rights Group Warns

The supreme leader of Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada, signed the code. Since its approval, it has since been sent to the courts around the nation. According to the report of Rawadari, this document does not only fail to respect the modern law in terms of legal protection; but instead, it dismantles it and puts in its place the social class, religious discrimination and corporal punishment based justice system.

A Code That Ignores International Standards

The most frightening world news today from the report revolves around children treatment. Article 30 of the new code holds that the Taliban has not completely criminalised on physical abuse of minors. The legislation only outlaws violence which causes bone fractures or their skin being torn. This implies that other conceits of physical and psychological mistreatment are technically condoned in the law.

In addition, Article 48 gives a direct right to fathers to punish their boys aged 10 years old in the case of their religious infraction of failing to offer prayers on a daily basis. This punishment can be unlimited in nature and thus a child is at risk of being abused all in the name of religious punishment. Human rights activists note that this is an outright contravention of the Convention on the Rights of the Child that Afghanistan is technically bound to.

The Normalization of Slavery and Class Tiers

The criminal code of the Taliban uses the word slave severally in a highly shocking move that has been viewed as a shocking event to the international community. According to Rawadari, Articles 4 and 15 are related to slavery and rights that come along with it. Whereas slavery is firmly forbidden under international law, the Taliban code regards it as a recognised societal status. As an example, there is the fact that discretionary punishment will be administered in both the case when an offender is free and when he is a slave.

A system of justice that is based on classes is also codified in the code. Instead of having equality before the law, the Taliban have separated the society into four different classes, namely, religious scholars, elites, middle class, and lower class. The extent of a punishment also lies solely in the category in which a person is put. In case a religious scholar is convicted of a crime, he/she might be given mere advice. But when an individual of the inferior order does the same, he or she is not only sent to jail, but also undergoes corporal punishment, like flogging.

A Crackdown on Dissent and “Sin”

The political opponents and the critics are also subjected to extreme severity in the legal document. People who are given the label of rebels can be sentenced to death. According to the code, the damage that such people cause is social in nature and it cannot be rectified unless they are executed. This gives the courts an exalted and threatening authority to gag anyone who raises a voice against the present government.

Besides the executions approved by the state, the code promotes some kind of vigilante justice. According to article 4, Clause 6, any citizen is at liberty to take the matter into their own hands in the event of having witnessed another person committing a sin. This would result in an absence of a legal monopoly of violence by the state and, therefore, may result in the chaos and personal revenge of the masses. Moreover, the legislation requires citizens to report any subversive meetings or activity of the opponents. Not reporting a neighbour or acquaintance may lead to the two year sentence in prison.

Targeting Culture and Religious Diversity

The code penetrates into personal and cultural lives of Afghans. Article 59 illegalizes dancing, not to mention watching dancing, but it does not give a clear description of what a dance is. This ambiguity gives the chance to arbitrary arrests in the traditional celebration or local occasions.

Small businesses are also at a great risk. Article 13 allows destroying places of immorality. Since the word immorality has not been defined, Rawadari cautions that this would be applied to barbershops, beauty salons or any other shop that the Taliban would consider objectionable.

At the religious level, the code discriminates against any person who is not a follower of Hanafi school of Sunni Islam. The adherents of other sects are termed to be the innovators or heretics. It is strictly prohibited to forsake the Hanafi sect and in case an individual is found guilty of such a deed then he will have two years of prison life. Making fun at or mocking an Islamic decision may also result in a jail sentence of the same nature.

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