Return of Afghan floggings as Taliban takes a hardline path

In early November, Sadaf*, a 22-year-old university student, was found guilty of “moral crimes” in a northern Afghan province. She was accused by local Taliban officials of speaking to a man who was not her “mahram” – a male family member.

Since seizing control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have imposed increasing restrictions on women, including gender segregation at universities and public places such as gyms.

Sadaf said her entire family could not sleep that night, laying awake, praying anxiously over the uncertain fate she faced.

“We didn’t know what my punishment would be, and everyone feared that they might kill me,” Sadaf told Al Jazeera.

“I feared they would kill my family too. My mother prayed that the matter would be settled with just whipping,” she said.

The Taliban have been inviting large crowds to public grounds and stadiums to hold public spectacles of punishments such as flogging. On Wednesday, a man was publicly executed in Farah province.

“I estimate that up to 80 people have been whipped since we took over Afghanistan,” Abdul Rahim Rashid, head of press relations at the Afghan Supreme Court, told Al Jazeera.

“Men and women have been whipped for different crimes in Kabul, Logar, Laghman, Bamyan, Takhar and some other provinces,” he added.

The reports of public punishments in recent weeks have brought back memories of the Taliban’s harsh rule in the 1990s when convicts were publicly stoned and beheaded.

The Taliban initially promised women’s rights and media freedom but more than 15 months on, Afghanistan’s new rulers have gone back on these promises. High schools for girls remain shut, women have been squeezed out of public places, and free media is almost non-existent.The United Nations human rights office said the execution in Farah, the first public execution since the Taliban returned to power, was “disturbing” and called for “an immediate moratorium on any further executions”.

But international pressure does not seem to have made the Taliban budge.

The Taliban’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, tweeted on Thursday the international criticism shows outsiders “do not respect the beliefs, laws and internal issues of Muslims, which is an interference in the internal affairs of countries and is condemned.

‘Framed’

Sadaf, a student of Islamic law, alleged she was wrongly accused and denied a fair trial. The name of her university is not being published for security reasons.

“About a month ago, I was stopped by a local Taliban leader while returning from the university. He wanted to know why I had rejected his son’s marriage proposal,” Sadaf said, adding the same man had approached her father several times before.

“But we rejected them every time because I did not want to marry a Talib [Taliban member],” she said.“I told him I know what a woman’s rights are in Islam, so if I don’t want to marry your son, no one can force me to do so. This made him very angry and he started calling me insulting names.”

The 22-year-old accused the Taliban leader of framing her for talking to a man she was not related to, which is punishable by the Taliban as a moral crime. “He told them [judges] that he saw me talking to the non-mahram; he was referring to the taxi driver that I had just got off from.”

Rashid, the head of press relations of the Supreme Court, denied the accusations, saying no decision by the courts was made without evidence.

“The courts study the case files, the accused is brought to the court of appeal, and only after a confession is taken, or the witnesses are presented that a judgement is passed,” he said.

Sadaf said her neighbours tried to convince the Talib to let her go but it was in vain. A local Taliban official later informed her father that she had been found guilty. She was not represented by a lawyer and the verdict was announced in her absence.

“They [Taliban judges] said I would be forgiven if I married Talib’s son but I refused. I would rather die than marry him.