By Mahsa Elham
Taliban publicly flogged 12 people, including a woman, in the sports stadium of Firozkoh in Ghor province on the afternoon of Thursday, December 15. The Taliban also arrested four people at the stadium, reportedly for filming the torture, residents tell Zan Times.
An eyewitness tells Zan Times that the Taliban publicly flogged these people for stealing, drinking alcohol, having sex, and running away from home. “The Taliban gave 39 lashes to those accused of theft, 25 to 35 lashes for drinking alcohol, 39 lashes to a man accused of having sex, and 29 lashes to a woman accused of running away from home,” the source explains.
Another witness tells Zan Times that Taliban intelligence arrested four spectators for filming the whippings and confiscated the phones of two other spectators just because they had their mobile devices in their hands.
Although the Taliban always make sure to have large crowds witnessing their corporal punishments, they are careful not to allow any filming.
Last month, the Taliban leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, told Taliban judges to enforce “hudud and qisas” according to Islamic sharia. In the Taliban’s interpretation, “hudud and qisas” can include lashing, amputating limbs, and stoning to death in front of public crowds.
Since then, more than 100 people have been publicly flogged across Afghanistan. On December 15, the Taliban publicly flogged 27 people in Helmand and Zabul provinces.
Last week, the Taliban executed a man in public in Farah province, the first public execution after the group regained control of Afghanistan. At least 20 senior officials of the Taliban, including the acting minister of foreign affairs, witnessed the death sentence.
The punishments come as Afghanistan is being engulfed by a humanitarian crisis. There is a surging number of food thefts as millions of people exhaust their savings due to high levels of unemployment after the economy collapsed when the Taliban regained power. More than 28 million people in Afghanistan need urgent aid, compared to 18 million two years ago, noted Joyce Msuya, UN assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, in a recent conference.
Now the Taliban are expanding their list of corporal punishments to deal with what are essentially socio-economic problems. Recently, several men were detained in Kandahar on charges of stealing flour and oil. The Taliban blackened the teens’ faces and then paraded them around the city, likely in an effort to show others what can happen to thieves.
