Taliban admits whipping 10 men and 9 women in public
The Supreme Court reported that 19 people in northeastern Afghanistan were given 39 whippings for adultery, robbery, and fleeing their homes. This was the first official acknowledgment that the Taliban used a severe application of Islamic law.
According to Abdul Rahim Rashid, a representative of the Supreme Court, on November 11 in Taloqan City, Takhar Province’s northeast, 10 men and 9 women were each given 39 whippings.
The lashings for their “crimes” took place in front of elders, clerics, and locals at the city’s largest mosque, according to the Associated Press.
A Taliban spokesperson had already declared that the group would uphold its rigorous interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law. Hibatullah Akhunzada, the group’s supreme leader, met with Taliban judges a few days ago and gave them orders to enforce Sharia law, according to Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson.
When the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan last August, they made a vow to be more reasonable and lenient toward the rights of women and minorities. However, despite the fact that the Taliban’s actions were not first confirmed by the authorities, videos and images that have been extensively circulated on social media show them punishing people.
What happened to those 19 individuals after the lashings is still unknown.
The group publicly executed, flogged, and stoned anyone found guilty of crimes during its prior administration in the late 1990s.
Assaults against female students outside universities
A Taliban official, who was purportedly a member of the Ministry of Vice and Virtue, was shown in a recent social media video whipping female students as they demonstrated for their right to education.
On October 30, the incident happened in front of the Badakhshan University in northeastern Afghanistan.
According to some reports of the incident, the female students were protesting for their right to education after being turned away because they were not wearing a burqa.
A Taliban government official was seen pursuing the students in the footage and ordering them to disperse, while hundreds of female students could be seen pounding on the university’s gates, pleading with the authorities to let them in.
