Overview
- The Pashto document, De Mahakumu Jazaai Osulnama, has been approved by Hibatullah Akhundzada and circulated to courts, though it has not been made public.
- Provisions allow husbands and fathers to physically punish wives and children so long as the violence does not cause broken bones or open wounds.
- When injuries are deemed serious, the maximum penalty for a husband is 15 days in prison, and conviction requires the woman to show wounds to a judge while fully veiled and accompanied by a male guardian.
- Article 34 permits up to three months in jail for a married woman who visits relatives without her husband’s permission, with family members who shelter her also subject to punishment.
- Article 9 creates a four-tier justice hierarchy with lighter treatment for clerics and elites, the code rolls back the 2009 EVAW protections, and Rawadari and UN expert Reem Alsalem have called for its suspension.