A new penal code issued by decree in Afghanistan sets harsher punishments for the mistreatment of animals than for domestic violence against women and solidifies into law inequality based on gender and social status. The decree, which was signed by Afghanistan's Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada in January, "defines several crimes and punishments that contravene Afghanistan's international legal obligations," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said Thursday in remarks to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. He urged Afghan authorities to rescind the decree. Comprised of 119 articles, the 60-page Decree No. 12 lays out penalties for women who visit their relatives without their husband's permission, and allows husbands and the heads of households to determine and mete out punishment in their own homes. "It provides for the use of corporal punishment for numerous offences, including in the home, legitimising violence against women and children," Turk said. "And it ..