Taliban Orders Judges in Afghanistan To Impose Sharia Law Punishments

The Taliban’s supreme leader has ordered judges in Afghanistan to impose Sharia law punishments, which could include public executions, amputations and flogging. “Those cases that have met all the Shariah conditions of limitation and retribution, you are obliged to issue the limitation and retribution, because this is the order of the Sharia… and it is obligatory to act,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted citing Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada. The Taliban employed such punishments when it was last in power in Afghanistan from 1996-2001. The announcement has sparked fear that it will lead to the continued deterioration of human rights in the country. Since it took over more than a year ago, the Taliban has closed secondary schools for girls, prevented women from going to work and requires women to wear a burqa in public as well as have a male relative chaperone, among other restrictive measures, despite promising to rule more moderately. Last week the Taliban issued further restrictions to further distance women from public life, including banning women from visiting all parks, pubic baths and gyms in Kabul.