Taliban’s New Criminal Code Punishes Animal Fighting More Harshly Than Domestic Violence

Afghanistan's Taliban government has enacted a comprehensive criminal code that imposes harsher penalties for animal fighting than for domestic violence against women. The decree also establishes different punishments based on social class and further restricts women's rights.

Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership has implemented a comprehensive criminal code through official decree that establishes more severe penalties for animal cruelty than for violence against women, while codifying gender-based discrimination into law.

Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada signed the decree in January, creating what U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk described as legislation that “defines several crimes and punishments that contravene Afghanistan’s international legal obligations” during Thursday remarks to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Turk called on Afghan officials to withdraw the decree.

The 60-page document, known as Decree No. 12 and containing 119 articles, establishes punishments for women who visit family members without spousal consent and grants husbands and household heads authority to decide and administer discipline within their homes.

“It provides for the use of corporal punishment for numerous offenses, including in the home, legitimizing violence against women and children,” Turk stated. “And it criminalizes criticism of the de facto leadership and their policies, in violation of freedom of expression and assembly.”

Under the new code, men who physically assault their wives severely enough to leave visible injuries face just 15 days imprisonment – provided the woman can successfully prove her case before a judge. Meanwhile, women who visit their father’s home without husband approval receive three months in prison, with relatives facing identical sentences if they fail to return the woman to her spouse.

The legislation “formally removes equality between men and women before the law,” stated U.N. Women Special Representative in Afghanistan Susan Ferguson in Wednesday’s released statement. “It places husbands in a position of authority over their wives and limits women’s ability to seek protection or justice.”

Animal mistreatment receives stricter punishment than violence against women. Organizing animal or bird fights carries a five-month prison sentence. Such competitions, including cockfights and partridge battles, remained popular entertainment in Afghanistan until the Taliban prohibited them following their 2021 return to power.

While Afghan officials have previously enacted numerous restrictions, including educational bans for girls beyond elementary levels, employment prohibitions for most women, and mandates governing female dress and conduct, this represents their first complete criminal code since taking control.

The decree also establishes class-based justice systems, with identical crimes receiving different consequences based on social position, from simple judicial warnings for religious leaders to physical punishment for those considered lower class.

Religious scholars and “high-ranking people” receive judicial warnings; tribal chiefs and business owners get warnings plus court summons; “average people of society” face imprisonment; while “the lower classes” endure physical beatings. When offenders receive maximum 39-lash sentences, the decree specifies strikes must target “different parts of the body.”

Murder cases remain exempt from class-based treatment, with all convicted individuals facing death sentences. Insulting Prophet Muhammad also carries capital punishment, though this can convert to six years imprisonment if the offender shows repentance.

During his Geneva address, Turk urged Afghan authorities to “reverse their course on excluding half the population. Women and girls are the present and the future, and the country cannot thrive without them.”