The issue we want to share with you regards the Taliban’s new Criminal Procedure Code in Afghanistan. A full copy of the 59 page law has been released.

The Taliban’s new Criminal Procedure Code legitimizes slavery and entrenches oppression!

We encourage the international community to read it for themselves (link to the full text on the Rawadari Website) and highlight further its outlandish claims on righteous conduct. From what we have learned already it justifies violence against women and children.

Of course, this region has suffered from decades of destabilizing conflicts and human rights abuses, but the current atrocity particularly bothers us. This code categorizes Afghan society into four classes: scholars, nobles, middle, and lower. Each class will face different punishments for crimes (including many normal acceptable behaviors in developed countries) based on their social status.

This hierarchical class system is discriminatory against minorities. It creates a monolithic definintion of who is a Muslim (a Hanafi) and how he should behave, while also punitively discriminating against women and non-binary individuals in unfathomable ways. It isolates all marginalized groups, such as Shia Muslims and other non-Hanafi sects. As highlighted by the Afghan human rights organization NGO Rawadari this measure exacerbates the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, including everything from education to employment to public life.

We suggest two basic frameworks for international collaboration to end the Taliban.

1. Immediate international action by nation states to impose targeted sanctions on Taliban officials. We further advocate for formal recognition of the Taliban’s actions as crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.
2. Solidarity with Afghan resistance, minorities, and diaspora communities. We must support Afghan human rights defenders who resist this repressive regime. We encourage our member parties to amplify voices like those of Nilofar Ayoubi and Rawadari, who document these abuses. We also encourage the promotion of secure digital tools for communication and censorship circumvention. Finally we advocate support for a strong democratic system with a Pirate party in Afghanistan.

The Taliban’s penal code is a stark reminder that even slavery continues to exist on this planet. If we do not stand up against it, then it could return anywhere. Afghanistan was once a relatively liberal country until the 1970s where western people came to travel and have fun. We hope that we can one day return there, and that all people living in Afghanistan will one day be able to enjoy the basic human freedoms that most of us enjoy.

The following message was prepared by PPI board members. It does not necessarily reflect the views of all of our members, but we hope it does. If any of our members though have competing ideas about this issue or any other issue that they would like us to broadcast, please share them with us. We are happy to broadcast a variety of ideological opinions and diverse issues. Our goal is to create positive communication to solve problems.