- The Taliban have reintroduced public floggings and executions in Afghanistan under sharia law.
- On Wednesday, the Taliban performed the first public execution since seizing Kabul in August 2021.
The Taliban has reintroduced public floggings and executions in Afghanistan, marking a painful return to the hardline sharia law the militant Islamists enforced in Afghanistan in the 1990s.
On Wednesday, the Taliban performed its first execution since seizing Kabul in August 2021. A convicted murderer was shot three times in front of a crowd in the Farah province by the father of his alleged victim, the Washington Post reports.
One day later, 27 people were publicly lashed in a soccer stadium south of Kabul after committing "moral crimes," which included gay sex, adultery, and theft, according to The Post.
Public punishments enforcing sharia law were first reported back in August when five people were whipped in front of locals in the Zabul province.
The first public punishment held in a sports stadium since the 90s occurred last month when 14 people were taken to the same stadium to be lashed, The Telegraph reported.
Invitations to the flogging of the three women and 11 men were sent via social media to "honorable scholars, mujahideen, elders, tribal leaders and local people" by the local government officials, per The Post's report.
Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the U.N. Office of Human Rights have condemned the execution and brutal enforcement of sharia law.
"The public flogging of women and men is a cruel and shocking return to out-and-out hardline practices by the Taliban," said Samira Hamidi, Amnesty International's South Asia Campaigner, said in a press release.
"These outrageous punishments are just another step in the legalization of inhuman practices by the Taliban's cruel justice system and expose the de-facto authorities' complete disregard for international human rights law," Hamidi added.
However, the Taliban argue that these international criticisms are culturally insensitive.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for the Taliban regime, now called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, said: "Criticizing Afghanistan for applying Islamic punishments shows that some countries and societies have either incomplete information, or have problems with Islam and respect for Muslim beliefs, laws and internal issues, that is very much interference in the internal affairs of countries which is condemnable."
An Afghan woman spoke to Al Jazeera about her experience living under the Taliban regime and her fear of public floggings or execution.
22-year-old student Sadaf, who spoke to Al Jazeera using a pseudonym, said she was found guilty of "moral crimes" after Taliban officials accused her of speaking to a man she wasn't related to.
After the incident, Sadaf and her family spent a sleepless night waiting for her punishment.
"We didn't know what my punishment would be, and everyone feared that they might kill me," Sadaf told Al Jazeera, adding, "I feared they would kill my family too. My mother prayed that the matter would be settled with just whipping."
Sadaf told Al Jazeera she was sentenced to a public flogging and whipped around 30 times until she passed out.
"I was whipped, as my father stood in front of me begging for the Talib to forgive me, apologizing to them for a crime I did not commit," Sadaf said of the incident, per Al Jazeera.