The observers
Afghanistan: lynching with whipping of woman reminds Taliban courts still rife
It took only 80 seconds for two men to inflict 40 lashes on their victim, a kneeling woman, under the eyes of a large audience. The video of the unbearable sentence inflicted on an Afghan woman, filmed near Herat and posted on Facebook on April 13, provided a sordid illustration of the persistence of the Taliban “courts”, however banned. A symbol of the bankruptcy of the Afghan state according to our Observer. According to our Observers, these images date back to the end of 2020, without it being possible to establish a precise date. This estimate was confirmed on April 15 by the governor of Herat. They only emerged online on April 13, sparking outrage online. The scene took place in Haftgola, in the district of Obe, near Herat. The woman, covered in a burqa, is brought by a man with a white beard in the middle of a circle formed by locals, only men, who will attend the execution of the judgment. The man who placed it in the middle of the circle of spectators joins three others, in the center of the circle: it is “the elders”, the self-proclaimed judges who pronounced sentence. The victim is forced to kneel, and a man begins to whip her, then taken over by another. Between the cries of pain, we hear the woman say: “I repent… It’s my fault… I fucked up”. According to our Observers, this young woman was accused of “immoral relations” because she spoke on the phone with a young man, who was also arrested, and has since been held in a Taliban prison. The Taliban court is said to be held three times a week in the Obe district, on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, dealing with complaints from locals. For our Observers, such jurisdictions exist almost everywhere in Afghanistan. And sometimes videos of the sentences leak, and reach social networks or local media. On October 25, 2015, the sentence of a Taliban court had attracted international attention following the posting on social networks of the video of the stoning of a young woman, “Rokhshana”. >> To read on Les Observateurs: Stoning of Rokhshana: “It is too easy to blame only the Taliban” Other cases of sentences to physical torture were relayed by the Afghan media, in particular in September 2015, when a court in the province of Sarpol had ordered the stoning of a man and a woman accused of adultery. Around the same time, another man and another woman were shot and executed on the same charges in Ghor. In September 2020, a woman was shot dead in the province of Sarpol. “We are afraid of falling back into the dark days of the Taliban government” Atefa Ghafouri is a women’s rights activist in Herat. All the men who witness this execution are ordinary citizens, locals. Many Afghans, especially in rural areas, turn to these courts. In many parts of Afghanistan, the state is non-existent, there is no court to go to file a complaint. And even when the courts exist, the procedures are long and expensive, because you have to pay bribes to work on your case, so unfortunately the only fast and free alternative is the courts. taliban. People find solutions for everyday conflicts there, and these courts create their own legitimacy. The Taliban apply their rules there, the first victims of which are women. At the same time, the inaction of the Afghan government makes these courts even more vehement. Those who officiate there feel untouchable. And they are. The authorities have never arrested or even questioned anyone in connection with these courts. It is as if this is accepted, as if the government has divided the country into two, one part that it controls and another that the Taliban are in charge of, with their rules. I asked the government why are you not suing these people? Even in the most publicized cases, like that of the lynching to death of Farkhonda [une femme tuée et dont le corps a été brûlé, après qu’elle a été accusée à tort d’avoir brûlé un Coran, NDLR] none of his murderers went to jail. >> To read on Les Observateurs: Serial honor crimes in an Afghan region: “it’s easy to kill women” “In a government that will have the Taliban, what will happen to us?” twenty years of foreign intervention in Afghanistan, billions of dollars spent, I regret to tell you that the situation is only getting worse for women. Especially when you look at these so-called peace talks between the United States, the Afghan government and the Taliban [les premières discussions ont eu lieu en septembre 2019, la prochaine session est prévue à partir de mi-mai en Turquie, NDLR]We women are afraid that the Afghan government will sell our rights to the Taliban in order to sign a peace agreement. In a government with Taliban, what will happen to us? We are afraid of going back to the dark days of the 1990s during the days of the Taliban government. Extremists are regaining ground all the time. For example, they put up posters in the street saying to wear their hijab well. The Taliban say they have changed their positions on women’s rights. But how can we believe them when we see that they organize these courts, with this kind of sanctions, literally every day across the country? While they continue to deliberately murder women, policewoman, journalist, activists? The icing on the cake, if I may say so, is the announced withdrawal of American troops [le 11 septembre 2021, NDLR], which will lead to a mess the Taliban can enjoy, that will be the song and the first victims of the chaos will be women. The US military will have spent almost twenty years in Afghanistan, spending nearly $ 1 trillion. allows to estimate the number of women who are subjected to the law of these courts. Afghanistan remains considered one of the worst countries in the world for the status of women.
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