The Taliban have carried out a new public flogging of 27 convicts, including nine women, in the northeastern province of Parwan.
The Taliban high court confirmed the guilty verdicts, without giving further details, but sources of the Afghan channel Tolo News confirmed the nature of the punishment, which took place in Charikar, the provincial capital.
The United Nations Office for Human Rights said it was «appalled» in late November by reports of the use of lashes as public punishment by the Taliban since their return to power in Afghanistan.
Taliban leader Mullah Hebatullah Ajundzada recently ordered Afghanistan’s judges to apply the full force of Sharia — or Islamic law — against those who commit a range of offenses that could be punishable even by public amputations or stoning for crimes such as robbery, kidnapping or sedition.
The fundamentalists have installed a government marked by a lack of women and representatives of other political and ethnic groups, while facing domestic and international criticism for limiting the rights of the population, especially women and girls.
In this regard, the UN expresses its concern about the «express» justice system put in place by the Taliban; one in which «arrests, court hearings, sentencing and punishments are often carried out on the same day».
