Under the new system, punishment for the same crime is no longer determined primarily by the nature or gravity of the offence but by the social status of the accused.
The Taliban has formally entrenched a class-based justice system in Afghanistan under a newly enacted Criminal Procedure Code signed by its supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, a move that has sparked outrage among human rights organisations and renewed international concern over the direction of the country’s legal and political order.
The new code, issued on January 4, 2026, and circulated to courts across the country, has been obtained by Rawadari, an Afghan human rights organisation that monitors violations and advocates for accountability. While the document spans 119 articles across three sections and 10 chapters, critics say one of its most alarming features is the explicit legalisation of social hierarchy within the justice system itself.
Hierarchy-Based Division
At the centre of the controversy is Article 9, which divides Afghan society into four categories: religious scholars (ulama or mullah), the elite (ashraf), the middle class, and the lower class. Under this system, punishment for the same crime is no longer determined primarily by the nature or gravity of the offence but by the social status of the accused.
According to the code, if an Islamic religious scholar commits a crime, the response is limited to advice. If the offender belongs to the elite, the consequence is a summons to court and advice. For those in the so-called middle class, the same offence results in imprisonment. But for individuals from the “lower class”, the punishment escalates to both imprisonment and corporal punishment.
Human rights groups said this provision effectively grants clerics and religious figures near-total immunity from meaningful criminal accountability while exposing poorer and more marginalised Afghans to harsher and more violent penalties.
“This is not a justice system; it is a legally codified hierarchy of privilege,” Rawadari said in a statement, warning that the code destroys the principle of equality before the law and replaces it with institutionalised discrimination.
Return Of Slavery?
Legal experts note that the move marks a sharp departure even from basic concepts of modern criminal law, where punishment is supposed to be proportionate to the crime and based on individual responsibility, not social background. By contrast, the Taliban’s new code openly embraces social stratification as a legal principle, turning courts into instruments for preserving and enforcing a rigid social order.
The class-based system is compounded by another deeply controversial element– the code’s repeated references to “free” persons and “slaves”.
In several articles, including provisions on punishment, the law explicitly distinguishes between free individuals and enslaved ones, a terminology that human rights advocates say amounts to the legal recognition of a status that is absolutely prohibited under international law. Slavery is banned in all circumstances under peremptory norms of international law, yet the Taliban’s code treats it as a normal legal category.
Words Over Proof?
Beyond social hierarchy, the new Criminal Procedure Code also strips away many of the most basic safeguards of due process. The document does not recognise the right to a defence lawyer, the right to remain silent or the right to compensation for wrongful punishment. It relies heavily on “confession” and “testimony” as the main means of proving guilt, while removing the requirement for independent investigation and failing to set clear minimum and maximum penalties for crimes.
Rights groups warned that this legal framework dramatically increases the risk of torture and forced confessions, particularly in a system where judges and law enforcement operate without oversight or accountability.
The code also significantly expands the use of corporal punishment, including flogging, and introduces vaguely defined offences such as “dancing” or being present in “gatherings of corruption”, giving judges sweeping discretion to detain and punish people for ordinary cultural or social activities.
A Human Rights Challenge
For many observers, however, the formalisation of class-based justice is the clearest signal yet that the Taliban is not merely imposing harsh laws, but reconstructing the entire legal system around privilege, loyalty and religious status. “By placing clerics and religious elites above the law, the Taliban has effectively announced that some people are untouchable, while others are permanently disposable,” Rawadari said.
The organisation has called for the immediate suspension of the code’s implementation and urged the United Nations and the international community to use all available legal and diplomatic mechanisms to prevent its enforcement. It has also pledged to continue monitoring the situation and to publish regular reports on how the new legal framework is being used in practice.
As Afghanistan becomes increasingly isolated and its internal repression deepens, critics say the new criminal code sends a stark message – under Taliban rule, justice is no longer blind, it is stratified, selective and firmly aligned with power.
