The top leader in Afghanistan ordered on Sunday that Islamic sharia law be fully enforced, which includes stonings, flogging, and public executions, according to reports.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid relayed a message from Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada on Twitter Sunday ordering the "obligatory" order after meeting with a group of judges earlier in the day, The Guardian reported.
Since the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in August 2021, Akhundzada has continued to rule from Kandahar, where the group emerged during the Afghan Civil War in 1994.
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"Carefully examine the files of thieves, kidnappers and seditionists," Mujahid quoted Akhundzada as saying. Those files in which all the sharia [Islamic law] conditions of hudud and qisas have been fulfilled, you are obliged to implement. This is the ruling of sharia, and my command, which is obligatory."
Under Islamic law, hudud crimes like drinking alcohol, adultery, rebellion, and kidnapping require a prominent level of proof to be punished – like four Muslim men witnessing adultery.
Qisas in Islam means to retaliate, or for example, take the life of a murderer or injure someone out of revenge.
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Akhundzada’s order comes after a year of the Taliban pushing its way back into its old school ways of flogging people and posting videos to social media or displaying the bodies of kidnappers who leaders said were killed in shootouts.
Women’s rights in the country have dissipated since the takeover, with many losing their jobs in government, according to the Guardian, and all requiring covering up with a burqa or hijab outside of the home.
