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'Ghulami' Legitimised, Clerics Above The Law: Why The Taliban's New Criminal Code Is Under Fire
'Ghulami' Legitimised, Clerics Above The Law: Why The Taliban's New Criminal Code Is Under Fire
The Taliban has formalised a class-based justice system in Afghanistan as part of its new criminal code, which has sparked global outrage and come under sharp criticism from human rights groups.
Supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has enacted a new Criminal Procedure Code, which formalises a hierarchical class system within Afghanistan's judiciary and, in doing so, provides complete immunity to the religious scholars and mullahs.
Signed on January 4, the 119-article document establishes four distinct social tiers effectively granting legal immunity and mere admonition to religious scholars while mandating severe corporal punishment and imprisonment for the lower classes. The new code legitimises ghulami, or slavery, while institutionalising gender-based violence by explicitly allowing masters and husbands to perform discretionary punishments on subordinates and spouses.
Human rights organisations, including the exiled group Rawadari, have condemned the law while critics have reportedly described it as a “document proclaiming the conviction of all citizens". The National Resistance Front (NRF) has likened the new structure to a rigid varna system, where the clerical elite are rendered “untouchable" by the law, as per reports. Many other critics called this a return to what some political factions have described as conditions “far worse than the Middle Ages".
Human rights experts and former Afghan officials reportedly raised alarms over how the measures in the new code systematically dismantle modern legal protections.
The code effectively abolishes legal equality and the presumption of innocence. It replaces international human rights standards with a rigid, discriminatory structure that prioritises social status over the nature of the crime.
According to sources and human rights groups, the document lacks provisions for defence lawyers, the right to remain silent, or the right to compensation, relying instead on confessions and testimony. It prioritises the Hanafi Sunni system as the only valid interpretation of Islam further marginalising diverse sections of the population, the sources said.
By removing these fundamental rights to defence, the regime has effectively replaced the principle of “equality before the law" with a system where justice is a privilege of the elite.
The ‘Criminal Procedure Code for Courts', or ‘De Mahakumu Jazaai Osulnama', explicitly divides Afghan society into four hierarchical categories: religious scholars (ulama), the elite (ashraf or aristocrats), the middle class, and the lower class.
Under Article 9, the severity of a sentence is determined by the offender's class rather than the crime itself. There are specific punishments for each tier.
Here's all you need to know:
Source: News18
Related Posts: Taliban class-based justice system, Afghanistan criminal code, Taliban legal system, human rights in Afghanistan, gender-based violence Afghanistan, ghulami slavery Afghanistan
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