The Taliban have ordered judges in Afghanistan to fully enforce their interpretation of Sharia Law, including possible public executions, mutilations and whippings, a move experts fear will lead to further deterioration of human rights in the impoverished country.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Afghan Supreme Leader Alaiqadar Amirul Momineen made the “mandatory” order after meeting with judges to “investigate cases of thieves, kidnappers and insurgents.”
“As many cases as meet all the Shariah conditions of restriction and punishment, you are obliged to issue the restriction and punishment, because this is the order of the Shariah… and it is obligatory to act,” Mujahid wrote on Sunday.
Kaheld Abou El Fadl, a professor of Islamic law at UCLA and one of the world’s leading authorities on Sharia law, told CNN that there is a rich history of debate about Sharia law and various interpretations of its meaning.
“On every legal point you will find 10 different opinions … Sharia is very open,” he said.
Sharia law in Islamic jurisprudence means the “seeking of divine will,” El Fadl told CNN. “Although, in both Western and indigenous discussions, it is common to use Sharia interchangeably with Islamic law, Sharia is a much broader and inclusive concept, according to a statement from El Fadl’s website.
The Taliban’s harsh enforcement of the doctrine when the group was last in power from 1996 to 2001 included brutal punishments including public executions, stonings, floggings and mutilations.
El Fadl said that within the 1,400-year-old Sharia tradition, these punishments were rarely applied because the majority of Islamic jurists throughout history did not interpret the law the way the Taliban do today. “The Taliban have a particular approach to Sharia that cannot be ignored,” El Fadl said. “Anyone who doesn’t fit their definition can be killed.”
After seizing power last August, the Taliban tried to project a more moderate image to win international support, but in the months since, the group has cracked down on rights and freedoms.
Women in Afghanistan can no longer work in most fields and need a male guardian for long-distance travel, while girls have been barred from returning to high school.
Last week, women were barred from entering an amusement park in the capital, Kabul, after the Taliban’s ethics ministry said women’s access to public parks would be restricted.
During the group’s first term in power, the Taliban banned most forms of music as un-Islamic, and this August, in the wake of the policy, Afghan folk singer Fawad Andarabi was dragged from his home and killed.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General, told CNN that the Taliban’s recent announcement about Sharia law was “disturbing.”
“Since they took over as de facto authority, we expect them to keep their promise to uphold existing human rights commitments made in Afghanistan,” Haq said. “They did not keep their commitments. We will continue to press them on this. We are against the death penalty in all its forms.”
The security situation in the country has also worsened since the group took over last year, with the nation becoming increasingly isolated and poorer.
Almost half the country faces acute hunger, according to the United Nations. An estimated 43 percent of Afghanistan’s population lives on less than one meal a day, with 90 percent of Afghans surveyed citing food as their primary need, according to a May report by the International Rescue Committee.
