Slavery in the Modern Era? Taliban’s New Criminal Code Sparks Global Outrage

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A newly introduced criminal code by the Taliban has triggered international condemnation and renewed scrutiny of the regime's treatment of women.

According to multiple reports, the law allows husbands, and in some interpretations, male "guardians" or "masters," to physically punish women under their control, provided the violence does not result in broken bones or visible open wounds. While Taliban officials frame the code as being aligned with their interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence, rights groups argue that it effectively institutionalises domestic violence.

The distinction embedded in the law is chilling: harm is not defined by pain, trauma, or coercion, but by the absence of visible injury. If there are no broken bones, the punishment may not legally qualify as abuse.

For many observers, the wording alone has revived an uncomfortable question: when a woman's bodily autonomy is legally subordinate to a male authority, what separates such a system from slavery?

The Broader Backdrop: Women Under Taliban Rule

Photo Credit: UNICEF/Shehzad Noorani

Since regaining power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban has steadily dismantled women's rights.

Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where girls are banned from secondary and higher education. According to UNESCO, more than 1.1 million girls have been deprived of formal schooling beyond sixth grade since the takeover. Universities were closed to women in 2022.

Employment restrictions have also tightened. The United Nations has reported that Afghan women have been barred from most government jobs and restricted from working with NGOs. In 2023, even Afghan women working with UN agencies were prohibited from carrying out their roles.

Public life has narrowed dramatically. Women are required to cover their faces in public in many regions, cannot travel long distances without a male guardian, and are barred from parks, gyms, and beauty salons, once among the few spaces where they could gather freely.

Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, have described the situation as "gender apartheid," a systematic erasure of women from public existence.

Against this backdrop, the new criminal code does not stand alone. It is part of a pattern.

When Law Codifies Control

Throughout history, slavery has not always looked like chains and auctions. At its core, slavery has meant ownership, control, and the denial of personhood.

When a legal system grants one person the authority to physically discipline another, and limits accountability to the severity of visible injury; it reframes violence as governance. It signals that the harmed individual's rights are conditional.

The Taliban's new code reportedly also complicates women's ability to seek justice. Proving injury in court is difficult when access to legal representation is restricted, when mobility is controlled, and when public testimony carries social consequences.

In such an environment, legality does not equate to justice. It simply formalises power.

The Modern Paradox

Photo Credit: UNICEF/Alessio Romenzi

We live in a world characterised by global connectivity. The issues of gender equality, inclusion in the workplace, and representation are some of the issues that are discussed in international forums. Yet in 2026, a government can establish laws that can be said to have a feudal structure, and this is within the boundaries of state power.

This is not merely a cultural issue. It is a human rights question.

If bodily autonomy depends on gender, if violence is regulated rather than prohibited, and if dissent is structurally silenced - what language do we use to describe it?

Perhaps the discomfort lies in the terminology itself. "Slavery" feels historical, abolished, something consigned to textbooks. But systems of control evolve. They adapt to new political climates and legal language.

The question is no longer whether the word is provocative. The question is whether it is accurate.