On January 4, 2026, the Taliban unveiled a new criminal code for Afghanistan.

It is presented as a return to ‘authentic’ Islamic governance. In reality, it is a comprehensive architecture of coercion, three parts, ten chapters and 119 articlesdesigned not to deliver justice but to consolidate absolute power under the guise of religion.

This structure matters. The code is not a loose collection of edicts; it is a carefully layered system. Its early chapters define who qualifies as a ‘proper’ Muslim and who does not. Later chapters prescribe punishments, authorize vigilante enforcement, restrict women’s autonomy, divide society into hierarchical classes, and criminalize criticism of the rulers. In short, belief, behaviour, and obedience are fused into a single coercive mechanism. Law becomes theology, and theology becomes a weapon.

Islam, however, was never meant to function this way.The Qur’an repeatedly grounds law in justice, restraint, and moral accountability. “O you who believe, stand firmly for justice, as witnesses for God, even if it be against yourselves” (4:135). The Taliban code does the opposite: it creates protected classesparticularly clericswho are exempt from judicial scrutiny, while ordinary citizens face punishment not only by courts but by neighbours empowered to police ‘sin’.

This inversion is not........

© Pakistan Observer