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In early November, Sadaf*, a 22-year-old college pupil, was discovered responsible of “ethical crimes” in a northern Afghan province. She was accused by native Taliban officers of chatting with a person who was not her “mahram” – a male relative.
Since seizing management of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have imposed rising restrictions on ladies, together with gender segregation at universities and public locations equivalent to gyms.
Sadaf mentioned her total household couldn’t sleep that night time, laying awake, praying anxiously over the unsure destiny she confronted.
“We didn’t know what my punishment could be, and everybody feared that they may kill me,” Sadaf advised Al Jazeera.
“I feared they’d kill my household too. My mom prayed that the matter could be settled with simply whipping,” she mentioned.
The Taliban have been inviting massive crowds to public grounds and stadiums to carry public spectacles of punishments equivalent to flogging. On Wednesday, a person was publicly executed in Farah province.
“I estimate that as much as 80 folks have been whipped since we took over Afghanistan,” Abdul Rahim Rashid, head of press relations on the Afghan Supreme Courtroom, advised Al Jazeera.
“Women and men have been whipped for various crimes in Kabul, Logar, Laghman, Bamyan, Takhar and another provinces,” he added.
The experiences of public punishments in current weeks have introduced again reminiscences of the Taliban’s harsh rule within the Nineteen Nineties when convicts have been publicly stoned and beheaded.
The Taliban initially promised ladies’s rights and media freedom however greater than 15 months on, Afghanistan’s new rulers have gone again on these guarantees. Excessive faculties for ladies stay shut, ladies have been squeezed out of public locations, and free media is sort of non-existent.
The United Nations human rights workplace mentioned the execution in Farah, the primary public execution for the reason that Taliban returned to energy, was “disturbing” and referred to as for “a right away moratorium on any additional executions”.
However worldwide strain doesn’t appear to have made the Taliban budge.
The Taliban’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, tweeted on Thursday the worldwide criticism reveals outsiders “don’t respect the beliefs, legal guidelines and inner problems with Muslims, which is an interference within the inner affairs of nations and is condemned.
“Afghanistan is an Islamic nation … they’ve sacrificed rather a lot for the implementation of Islamic legal guidelines and system,” mentioned Mujahid.
In a public assertion issued on November 14, Haibatullah Akhunzada, the Taliban’s supreme chief, ordered judges to completely implement facets of the group’s hardline interpretation of Islamic legislation, which incorporates public executions, stoning, flogging, and amputation of limbs.
‘Framed’
Sadaf, a pupil of Islamic legislation, alleged she was wrongly accused and denied a good trial. The identify of her college just isn’t being printed for safety causes.
“A few month in the past, I used to be stopped by a neighborhood Taliban chief whereas getting back from the college. He needed to know why I had rejected his son’s marriage proposal,” Sadaf mentioned, including the identical man had approached her father a number of occasions earlier than.
“However we rejected them each time as a result of I didn’t need to marry a Talib [Taliban member],” she mentioned.
“I advised him I do know what a girl’s rights are in Islam, so if I don’t need to marry your son, nobody can power me to take action. This made him very offended and he began calling me insulting names.”
The 22-year-old accused the Taliban chief of framing her for speaking to a person she was not associated to, which is punishable by the Taliban as an ethical crime. “He advised them [judges] that he noticed me speaking to the non-mahram; he was referring to the taxi driver that I had simply received off from.”
Rashid, the top of press relations of the Supreme Courtroom, denied the accusations, saying no resolution by the courts was made with out proof.
“The courts research the case recordsdata, the accused is delivered to the courtroom of enchantment, and solely after a confession is taken, or the witnesses are introduced {that a} judgement is handed,” he mentioned.
Sadaf mentioned her neighbours tried to persuade the Talib to let her go nevertheless it was in useless. An area Taliban official later knowledgeable her father that she had been discovered responsible. She was not represented by a lawyer and the decision was introduced in her absence.
“They [Taliban judges] mentioned I’d be forgiven if I married Talib’s son however I refused. I’d fairly die than marry him.
“My mom tried to persuade me however my father stood by me, saying ‘it’s higher my daughter dies as soon as than die each day’.”
‘Legitimacy of such trials’
The night time earlier than the punishment was to be carried out, Sadaf’s household recited the Quran and prayed for her security.
“I hugged my siblings, kissed my mom and requested for her forgiveness. And I advised my father if one thing occurred to me to remain sturdy and depart this province,” Sadaf mentioned earlier than leaving for a neighborhood mosque.
Her neighbours, the Taliban leaders, together with the one who levelled the accusation towards her, had gathered for the punishment. She was ordered to be flogged publicly.
“They stood in a circle round me. My fingers have been tied and I used to be advised to not scream as a result of males shouldn’t hear ladies’s voices. After which I used to be whipped, as my father stood in entrance of me begging for the Talib to forgive me, apologising to them for a criminal offense I didn’t commit,” she mentioned.
Sadaf was whipped about 30 occasions earlier than she handed out. She doesn’t bear in mind how she was moved to her residence.
Human rights organisations are elevating considerations over rising incidences of public lashings and different brutal punishments throughout Afghanistan.
“The general public flogging of ladies and men is a merciless and stunning return to out-and-out hardline practices by the Taliban. It violates absolutely the prohibition of torture and different ill-treatment beneath worldwide legislation and shouldn’t be carried out beneath any circumstances,” Samira Hamidi, an Afghan activist and Amnesty Worldwide’s South Asia campaigner, advised Al Jazeera.
The UN has raised considerations over the trials the place an accused is usually arrested, tried, sentenced and punished, all on the identical day. Hamidi mentioned it additionally raised questions in regards to the legitimacy of such trials, carried out within the absence of a functioning justice system.
“The shortage of cures to these arrested – equivalent to entry to legal professionals, formal authorized mechanisms, and courtroom trials – has enabled the Taliban to reimpose their infamous justice utilizing their interpretation of Islamic legislation, or shariah, as a software.
“Thus, the legitimacy of such degrading and inhumane practices is out of the query and the usage of violence and ill-treatment just isn’t justifiable.”
‘Deeply patriarchal society’
For ladies in a deeply patriarchal society equivalent to Afghanistan, such punishments can have an impact far more profound than the lashing itself. “Being a girl flogged in public is, culturally, a direct risk to their lives as properly,” Hamidi mentioned.
“These ladies stand to not simply lose social respect however are additionally susceptible to home violence and mistreatment from their households. They are going to be judged, dismissed and may even lose their lives for bringing disgrace to their household and society,” she mentioned.
Instances equivalent to Sadaf’s spotlight the extent to which ladies’s rights have steadily deteriorated in Afghanistan. Ladies proceed to lose entry to the authorized, political and social rights that they had secured over the past 20 years for the reason that Taliban was overthrown in 2001.
Richard Bennett, the UN’s particular rapporteur on Afghanistan, referred to as it “the worst nation on the planet to be a girl or a lady”, whereas presenting his findings to the Basic Meeting committee in October.
In Sadaf’s case, the lashings have been removed from the top of her ordeal. Her household continued to face strain from the Taliban chief to marry her to his son.
“My father purchased us a while. He advised Talib that he would organize the wedding however requested to attend a few weeks for the injuries on my physique to heal. In that point, he organized for our escape,” she mentioned.
With the assistance of associates, her household escaped in a automobile, within the lifeless of the night time, to a special province, the place they continue to be in hiding, going through an unsure future.
“We don’t know for the way lengthy we will stay on the run, however we’ve to seek out an escape. Afghanistan has turn out to be an enormous jail the place the Taliban can inflict any punishment on you with out cause,” Sadaf mentioned from her hiding place inside Afghanistan.
*Sadaf’s identify has been modified attributable to considerations over doable reprisals
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