The Taliban has publicly lashed women accused of adultery and trying to flee in the first large-scale use of corporal punishment since the group returned to power. The public punishments in northeastern Afghanistan mark the beginning of the Taliban’s rollout of strict Islamic law across the country. Ten men and nine women were each lashed 39 times on November 11 in the city of Taloqan for allegedly committing adultery or theft, a senior Taliban official, Abdul Rahim Rashid, has confirmed. The incident is reminiscent of the brutal public executions, stonings and floggings the Taliban carried out while they were last in power in the 1990s, to subdue dissent. On Thursday, Hibatullah Akhunzada, the Taliban’s secretive leader, ordered the country’s judges to again fully enforce the very same Islamic law punishments, known as Sharia, which loosely follows the principle of retaliation or an eye for an eye, infamously including the amputation of thieves’ limbs. The incident in Taloqan, the capital of the northeastern Afghan province of Takhar, suggests Taliban officials across Afghanistan have already adhered to this demand. While officials have not released personal information about the individuals who were lashed, their alleged crimes were assessed by two courts before the ruling was made in accordance with Sharia.
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