Taliban publicly flog 9 Afghan men, women despite UN outcry

·

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
October 9, 2024

ISLAMABAD — Hardline Taliban authorities in Afghanistan reported Wednesday that nine people, including at least two women, were publicly flogged after being convicted of various crimes, such as adultery.

Five of the punishments took place at a sports stadium in Kandahar, capital of the eponymous southern province. Local Taliban officials, judicial officers, and ordinary Afghans were among the onlookers.

The Taliban’s Supreme Court announced the details, saying the five individuals were found guilty of adultery, sodomy, and robbery, with each of them receiving 39 lashes and prison sentences ranging from two to seven years. It did not say whether females were among the convicts.

The court separately announced that two men and two women were publicly flogged Wednesday for adultery in the northern Afghan provinces of Takhar and Samangan.

Hundreds of men and women have been lashed in sports stadiums across Afghanistan since the Taliban regained power in 2021.

In June this year, the Islamist leaders carried out a mass lashing of 63 convicts, including 14 women, in a packed northern sports stadium for committing “immoral crimes,” such as adultery and homosexuality.

The Taliban have also executed at least five Afghan murder convicts in crowded sports stadiums, citing the Islamic concept of retributive justice known as qisas.

Global outcry

The executions and corporeal punishments have drawn an outcry and calls from the United Nations to immediately end them for being in breach of human rights and international law.

Taliban leaders defend their criminal justice system, arguing that it is in line with their interpretation of the Islamic law of Sharia. They also rejected criticism of their curbs on Afghan women’s access to education, employment, and public life at large.

The United States and the world at large have refused to recognize Taliban authorities as the official government of Afghanistan, citing their treatment of women, among other human rights concerns.

“We continue to make clear that any significant steps towards normalization of relations is contingent upon a profound shift in the Taliban’s human rights conduct,” said Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesperson, speaking to reporters Tuesday. “And there has been remarkable unity among the international community on that question.”

Girls ages 12 and older are not allowed to attend secondary school, making Afghanistan the only country in the world with this restriction, while female students have been barred from universities. Most Afghan women are prohibited from working in both public and private sectors, including the U.N.

The Taliban last month enacted so-called “vice and virtue” laws that, according to critics, have dealt another blow to women’s rights in Afghanistan. The contentious decree deems the sound of a woman’s voice in public a moral violation and requires them to cover their entire bodies and faces when outdoors. It also forbids women from looking at men to whom they are not related and vice versa.

Afghanistan’s First Female Mayor Speaks Out as Others Can’t

·

Azra Jafari via Newsweek: We mourn our inability to help our fellow women and girls who are suffering under the Taliban, but most of all we feel anger at the United States and the international community for their betrayal of Afghan women. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, when the war on terror was waged, the liberation of women in Afghanistan was part of the pretext. Almost 20 years later, on Aug. 15, 2021, that pretext proved false. In order to find a quick exit, Western forces dealt with the same people they had overthrown 20 years before, completely forgetting Afghan women. The betrayal was unforgiveable. The women of Afghanistan will never forget. Click here to read more (external link).

200 Athletes Compete in National Judo Team Selection Tournament in Baghlan

·

Tolo News: Judo athletes from various provinces across the country have entered the field of competition in Baghlan for the national team selection tournament in this sport. This competition, hosted by Baghlan, involves judo athletes from 14 provinces, with the goal of identifying elite players for the country’s national judo team. Click here to read more (external link).

Afghan Citizen Arrested In U.S. For Allegedly Plotting Election Day Attack

·

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
October 9, 2024

U.S. authorities said they have arrested an Afghan citizen and charged him with conspiring to conduct a terrorist attack on Election Day in the United States in the name of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.

The Justice Department said in a statement late on October 8 that Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, a resident of Oklahoma City, confirmed to U.S. investigators after his arrest that he was plotting an attack aimed at large crowds of people at an unspecified location.

Tawhedi and a co-conspirator, who has not been named because he is a minor, “expected to die as martyrs” during the attack, the statement said.

The Afghan national arrived in the United States on a special immigrant visa in 2021 and was waiting for the conclusion of his immigration proceedings, the Justice Department said.

He acquired two AK-47 firearms and ammunition and initiated the sale of his house and other assets while arranging for his family members to be resettled back in Afghanistan.

“As charged, the Justice Department foiled the defendant’s plot to acquire semiautomatic weapons and commit a violent attack,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said.

The arrests come as U.S. authorities are facing heightened concerns over the possibility of terrorist acts on U.S. soil in the run-up and during the presidential election on November 5.

The FBI searched Tawhedi’s phone and obtained communications between him and an individual who he understood to be affiliated with IS and allegedly facilitated “recruitment, training, and indoctrination” for the terrorist group, according to the criminal complaint, which also said Tawhedi appeared in a video recorded in July reading to two children about “the rewards a martyr receives in the afterlife.”

He also allegedly accessed and stored IS propaganda on his iCloud and Google account, was a member of pro-IS Telegram groups, and donated to a charity that gathers funds for IS.

“This defendant, motivated by [IS], allegedly conspired to commit a violent attack, on Election Day, here on our homeland,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

The complaint, which does not say how Tawhedi came to the authorities’ attention, says an FBI informant posing as a buyer of personal property listed by the suspect on Facebook got in touch with him ostensibly to buy a laptop for his firearms business.

Tawhedi and his co-conspirator tested firearms together with the FBI informant before “buying” two AK-47 assault rifles and 500 bullets from him on October 7.

Once Tawhedi took possession of the guns and ammunition at a location in the Western District of Oklahoma, the two were arrested.

If found guilty, Tawhedi, who was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to IS and receiving a firearm to be used to commit an act of terrorism, faces up to 20 years in prison.

The program under which Tawhedi obtained a U.S. visa was meant to allow Afghans who helped U.S. forces in Afghanistan to relocate to the United States.

U.S. and international forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, leading to an almost immediate takeover of the country by the Taliban.

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Religious education surges under Taliban as secular schooling languishes

·

Madrassah (file photo)

By Homa Wahaj
VOA News
October 8, 2024

Washington — The number of madrassas, or religious schools, has increased fourfold under the Taliban in Afghanistan as experts worry that the rise could fuel extremism in the country and limit opportunities for younger Afghans, particularly girls.

“In the past year, at least 1 million children have been enrolled in madrassas for religious education,” said Karamatullah Akhundzada, the deputy minister of education, in a September news conference.

The year’s new enrollments brought the total to 3.6 million students at more than about 21,000 madrassas registered in the country,

This shift marks a change in the educational landscape in Afghanistan, where madrassas now outnumber the more than 18,000 public and private schools.

Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, founding director of the Center for Governance and Markets at the University of Pittsburgh, told VOA that the increase in the number of madrassas is part of the Taliban’s effort to establish control.

“It’s important to look at madrassas together with local governance. Under the republic [former Afghan government], there was no formal village governance, but the Taliban have replaced that with religious leaders who now hold local power,” Murtazashvili said.

Before the Taliban seized power in 2021, there were about 5,000 madrassas registered across Afghanistan.

After returning to power, the Taliban aimed to transform the education system.

Officials at the Taliban Ministry of Education said they have taken steps to “revise and reform” textbooks and curricula in the schools in the past three years.

Before the Taliban, more than 9 million students were enrolled in all types of schools, with 39% of them girls.

Following the Taliban’s return to power, the group imposed a ban on girls’ secondary education, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to restrict girls from attending secondary school.

The Taliban ban on secondary education deprived about 1.5 million girls of going to school.

Murtazashvili sees the ban on girls attending school beyond the sixth grade as a clear sign of extremism.

“By robbing girls of education, they are robbing the country of its future,” Murtazashvili said, adding that “you’re not going to have a future of women nurses and doctors. You’re going to see mortality increase.”

One young woman who spoke to VOA but did not want her name used was in 11th grade when the Taliban took power in 2021 and banned secondary education for girls.

She said she enrolled in a madrassa in Herat City, hoping to continue her education, but was “disappointed.”

“At first, I thought I could learn and reconnect with friends, but it felt more like brainwashing,” she said, adding that “they kept telling us education wasn’t for us. We should become good housewives and give birth to future Islamic leaders.”

After three months, “disheartened with the restrictive environment,” she quit the madrassa.

Mohammad Moheq, former Afghan ambassador to Egypt and author of many books on Islam and Afghanistan, told VOA the Taliban push their strict interpretation of Islam through these madrassas.

“Their goal is to stop people from thinking for themselves and push their strict version of Islam that fits their political agenda,” Moheq said.

Madrassas played an important role in the Taliban’s rise to power in the late 1990s as many of the Taliban were graduates of madrassas in neighboring Pakistan.

In April 2022, the Taliban announced their plan to open three to 10 new madrassas in every district in Afghanistan.

“Religious sciences should be further taught throughout Afghan society,” said Noorullah Mounir, the then-minister of education, as he urged Afghan teachers to instill an “Islamic belief” in their students.

Saba Hanif, a professor at the University of Education in Lahore, Pakistan, told VOA that there is a need for the international community to talk to the Taliban to find “a middle ground” and blend religious and “worldly” education.

“They should agree on certain terms and show the Taliban how purely religious education could harm the country’s future, particularly in terms of job opportunities and economic growth,” Hanif said.

She added that if children are exposed to “only one way of thinking and one way of living life,” it will perpetuate extremism.

“This will be quite obvious. And it could be very dangerous for the region because, you know, of their past practices. They try to force it on others, and they also don’t hesitate in using power to control others,” Hanif said.

Arrests, House Searches Begin In Panjshir Following Attack On Taliban Stronghold

·

Afghanistan International: Following a deadly attack on a Taliban base in the village of Mohammad Baig Khel in Panjshir province, Taliban intelligence forces have arrested a number of local residents and launched house-to-house search operations in the province. Local sources in Dara district told Afghanistan International that after the attack on Friday evening, October 4, the Taliban’s intelligence put severe pressure on the residents of the area. The Taliban’s operations happened after an attack in the Dara e Abdullah Khel in which a number of Taliban forces were killed and wounded. The National Resistance Front claimed responsibility for the attack and announced the number of Taliban casualties at 13 dead and two wounded. Click here to read more (external link).

Afghans paid to participate in PTI protests: Pakistani Media

·

Khaama: Radio Pakistan has reported that several Afghans participated in protests organized by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in exchange for promises of financial rewards. The state radio claimed that the arrested Afghans damaged public property during the demonstrations. During these protests, Pakistani police arrested 412 individuals, including 60 Afghans. So far, the PTI party has not made any official comments on the matter. Click here to read more (external link).

Confiscated Over 259,000 Acres Of Land In Past Month, Claims Taliban

·

Taliban militants (file photo)

Afghanistan International: The Taliban’s Ministry of Justice announced that it had confiscated 259,469 acres of usurped land in 23 provinces of Afghanistan from September to October this year. The Taliban’s Ministry of Justice said that the confiscated lands are “Taliban government’s land” and have been handed over to the relevant departments of the group. The statement did not specify which department owned the lands or who had usurped them. Click here to read more (external link).

Life under Taliban rule