Taliban publicly flogs three people for adultery in southern Afghanistan: Report
Aug 08, 2022
Kabul [Afghanistan], August 8 : Members of the Taliban publicly flogged and shamed three people, two women and a man, for allegedly committing "adultery" in the southern part of the country, according to media reports.
All the three accused received a two-year term of imprisonment for adultery, Afghan news agency Khaama Press reported, citing a Taliban official from Zabul province.
Earlier, the Taliban reportedly arrested these individuals for the offence of adultery before publicly whipping them.
This is not an isolated incident as the Taliban has previously flogged people accused of adultery, fornication and theft in the southern province of Kandahar.
In a similar incident about a month ago, three individuals in the province of Kandahar were subjected to 39 flogs for allegedly committing adultery and theft.
Sharing perspectives over public executions and public floggings, an Afghan legal scholar said, that these incidents are inevitable as a result of the Taliban's so-called reforms to Afghanistan's justice system.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in July released a report outlining the human rights situation in Afghanistan over the 10 months since the Taliban takeover.
The report summarises UNAMA's findings with regards to the protection of civilians, extrajudicial killings, torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests and detentions, the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, fundamental freedoms and the situation in places of detention.
The report also contains recommendations to both the de facto authorities and the international community. The erosion of women's rights has been one of the most notable aspects of the de facto administration to date.
Since August 15, women and girls have progressively had their rights to fully participate in education, the workplace and other aspects of public and daily life restricted and in many cases completely taken away.
"Despite prior assurances during negotiations in Doha and at a 17 August 2021 press conference in Kabul that assured women of their rights "within the framework of Sharia law", and that there will be "no violence (...) and no discrimination against women,"66 Afghan women have been apprehensive following the return to power of the Taliban in August 2021 given the Taliban's conservative theo-political position on the role of women," the UNAMA report said.
Such a position has manifested since in a progressive series of restrictions on Afghan women and girls' enjoyment of their human rights and freedoms.