Since ruling over Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban has intensified its punishments against those accused of various crimes, despite initial promises of respecting human rights and media freedom after taking over the country 15 months ago.
In perhaps the first public execution since the Taliban took power last year, a man was sentenced to death on December 7 in the western province of Farah, followed by a public flogging of 27 men and women in a soccer stadium in the northern region of Parwan.
The Taliban instructed judges to fully implement their interpretation of Sharia law, which includes amputations, floggings, stonings, and public executions, a senior Taliban spokesperson said.
Reports say at least 35 young people were killed and more than eighty wounded when a suicide bomber targeted a school in Kabul, Afghanistan. Local journalist Bilal Sarwary says the number of dead is much higher. He reported that one hundred had been counted so far.
It was an empty promise. This was what undercover journalist and filmmaker Ramita Navai said about the promise of the Taliban to defend women’s rights according to Islamic law.
Islamic law is seen to implement God’s commands for Muslims. Sharia, which means “the way,” are laws that represent conduct that is intended to guide Muslims.
A Sikh temple in Kabul, Afghanistan, was attacked, leaving a Sikh devotee and a Taliban security officer dead and seven injured. The attack was proclaimed to be retaliation for the comments made by India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Ajmal Haqiqi, an Afghan model and YouTuber, found himself in a difficult situation with the Taliban. Haqiqi and his colleagues had allegedly insulted Islam in one of their recent videos that resulted in their arrests.
On May 22, 2022, came another attack on women’s rights in Afghanistan. The Taliban reissued an old law requiring women to cover their faces, this time specifying news anchors. Proof of this new law was seen on-air as female news anchors are seen on TV with masks just showing their eyes across all popular news channels in the country.
On April 3, the Taliban announced that they would ban the cultivation of opium poppies. A spokesman from the Taliban warned that farmers might be “jailed and their crops burned if they harvested poppy,” DW reported.
