The Supreme Council of National Resistance for the Salvation of Afghanistan says the Taliban’s newly approved penal code would push the country into conditions “far worse than the Middle Ages”.
In a statement released on Friday, the council said the move was deliberate and aimed at “distorting the image of Islam in the eyes of global public opinion”.
The opposition body said the penal code governing Taliban-run courts “openly violates human dignity and religious and sectarian equality”, warning that several of its provisions institutionalise discrimination and abuse.
Referring to the contents of the code, the council said the Taliban have imposed explicit religious discrimination by recognising followers of only one sect as Muslims and branding adherents of other sects as heretics.
It added that the code divides society in what it described as a primitive and medieval manner, “effectively legitimising slavery, defining women as concubines and husbands as masters and owners of women, and imposing a range of degrading and inhumane punishments on society”.
The council, which is made up of political party leaders and opponents of the Taliban, stressed that no group has the right, through what it described as a narrow, monopolistic and extremist interpretation of religion, to deprive others of their religious and human rights.
It called on the international community, particularly member states of the International Criminal Court, human rights organisations, the European Union and the United Nations, to act before it is “too late”.
According to a document obtained by Afghanistan International, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has endorsed the penal code, which contains 119 articles.
The code grants judicial institutions the authority to sentence opponents and critics to death. Under Article 4, Clause 6, citizens are even permitted to personally punish individuals if they witness what is described as a “sin” being committed.
The Taliban’s penal code also explicitly recognises slavery, using the term ghulam (slave) in several articles.
