A United Nations report has strongly condemned the Taliban for carrying out public executions, lashings, and stoning since capturing control in Afghanistan, and urged the country’s government to put an end to such practices.
According to a study by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), 274 men, 58 women, and two boys have been publicly flogged in Afghanistan in the last six months. “Corporal punishment is an offense of the Convention against Torture and must cease,” said Fiona Frazer, the Agency’s Human Rights Chief. She also demanded an immediate halt to all executions.
In response, the Taliban foreign ministry stated that Afghanistan’s laws are defined by Islamic principles and standards, and that the vast majority of Afghans respect those rules. “In the event of a conflict between international human rights law and Islamic law, the government is obliged to follow the Islamic law,” the ministry said in a statement.
Despite initial vows of a more moderate administration than during their initial tenure in power in the 1990s, the Taliban began carrying out such punishments, almost two years after seizing power from the central government.
Simultaneously, in accordance with their comprehension of Islamic law, they have increased restrictions on women, excluding them from public venues such as parks and gyms. The limitations have sparked worldwide outrage, further isolating the country at a time when its economy is collapsing and aggravating a humanitarian crisis.
The report on physical punishments detailed Taliban practices both before and after their return to power in August 2021, when they took Kabul as US and NATO forces retreated after two decades of conflict.
The first open whipping under the Taliban control, occurred in October 2021 in the northern Kapisa province. The report emphasized that, a woman and a man accused of adultery were publicly lashed 100 times each in the presence of religious scholars and local Taliban officials in that case.
According to the story, Taliban authorities executed an Afghan convicted of murder in December 2022, the first public execution since they gained power. The father of the victim carried out the execution with an assault weapon in front of hundreds of spectators and prominent Taliban commanders in western Farah province.
The decision to carry out the penalty was “made very carefully,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, the senior Government Spokesman, after clearance from three of the country’s highest courts and the Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Research confirms that, there has been an alarming spike in the quantity and frequency of judicial physical punishment since November, but Mujahid has echoed the comments made by the supreme commander concerning judges and their implementation of Islamic law in a tweet.
The Taliban’s appointed Deputy Chief Justice, Abdul Malik Haqqani, disclosed in a video message that the Taliban’s Supreme Court, had delivered 175 so-called revenge judgements since taking control, including 79 floggings and 37 stonings.
Such rulings affirm a supposed victim’s or a relative of a victim’s right to punish or pardon the perpetrator. The Taliban administration, according to Haqqani, is dedicated to implementing such sentences.
The Taliban proceeded to carry out corporal punishment and executions in regions within their control, even after the initial fall in the US-backed former Afghan administration invasion in 2001, according to the report. Many Muslim-majority countries draw on Islamic law, but the Taliban interpretation is an outlier.
Women Cannot Work At Your Agencies, Taliban Tells U.N
Taliban leadership advised the United Nations last April, that Afghan women working for the UN mission may cease to report for duty. Aid agencies have cautioned that the prohibition on women working will limit their ability to provide vital humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan.
Previously, the Taliban prohibited females from continuing their education past the sixth grade, and women from participating in most civic life and work. They forbade Afghan women from working at municipal and non-governmental organizations in December, but this did not apply to UN headquarters at the time.
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