Woman stoned to death in north Afghanistan
A boulder is then thrown at her head, her burka is soaked in blood, and she collapses inside the hole
By Quentin Sommerville
The men who stoned a couple to death in north Afghanistan will be brought to justice, say officials, after footage of the killings came to light.
''For Siddqa, the hole where she stood is now her grave'' (Photo: BBC)
Watch Video here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12292917
The man and woman were accused of adultery in the district of Dashte Archi in Kunduz province last August.
Hundreds of people attended the stoning but no-one was charged. The area is still under Taliban control.
After viewing the footage, regional police chief Gen Daoud Daoud said those responsible could be recognised.
"Special police investigators will be sent there, we will find them and they will be brought to justice," he told the BBC.
A mobile phone recording of the killings has only just been seen by Afghan and Nato officials. Most of the video is too graphic to be shown.
Soaked in blood
The video begins with Siddqa, a 25-year-old woman, standing waist-deep in a hole in the ground.
She is entirely hidden in a blue burka. Hundreds of men from the village are gathered as two mullahs pass sentence. As Taliban fighters look on, the sentence is passed and she is found guilty of adultery.
The stoning lasts two minutes. Hundreds of rocks - some larger than a man's fist - are thrown at her head and body. She tries to crawl out of the hole, but is beaten back by the stones. A boulder is then thrown at her head, her burka is soaked in blood, and she collapses inside the hole.
Incredibly Siddqa was still alive. The mullahs are heard saying she should be left alone. But a Taliban fighter steps forward with a rifle and she is shot three times.
Then her lover, Khayyam, is brought to the crowd. His hands are tied behind his back. Before he is blindfolded he looks into the mobile phone camera. He appears defiant.
The attack on him is even more ferocious. His body, lying face down, jerks as the rocks meet their target. He is heard to be crying, but is soon silent.
The couple had earlier eloped to Pakistan, but were lured back with the false promise that they would not be harmed.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid defended the sentencing.
In a telephone interview he said: "Anyone who knows about Islam knows that stoning is in the Koran, and that it is Islamic law.
"There are people who call it inhuman - but in doing so they insult the Prophet. They want to bring foreign thinking to this country."
'Fear and hatred'
Nato's senior civilian representative, Mark Sedwill, said the Taliban had an "appalling" view of Islamic justice.
But he said the Afghan government needed to improve the rule of law in the country.
"Communities that are terrorised don't have choices… that's why we have to remove the Taliban in these communities," he said.
"It is absolutely critical that the Afghan government competes head-on with the Taliban in this area - the rule of law - so that people don't face the kind of choice that this community faced."
Ahmed Nader Nadery, of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, watched the video in full. He said it brought back memories of when the Taliban ruled the country.
"It not only reminded me of those days in Kabul and other parts of the country, but it created a feeling of fear, and of further hatred of this group. And a fear - what if they return," he said.
Mr Nadery added: "The Afghan government and the international community have failed to deal with these grave crimes. It happened at a time when there was a debate about the future of the international community, and discussions of their timeline for leaving the country."
Afghan mother and daughter stoned and shot dead after Taliban accused them of ‘moral deviation and adultery’
Armed men stoned and shot dead a widow and her daughter in Aghanistan after the Taliban accused the women of ‘moral deviation and adultery’, according to reports.
The killing happened on Thursday in the Khawaja Hakim area of Ghazni city, the BBC reported, and two men have now been arrested.
Officials – who blamed the Taliban for the attack – told the Corporation that armed men went into the house where the two women lived, took them to the yard outside and they were stoned and then shot.
‘Neighbours did not help or inform the authorities on time,’ an official told the BBC.
A neighbour of the executed women told M&G.com he heard shots but was afraid to go out.
‘When the women in the neighbourhood washed the bodies of the killed women, they saw signs of stoning,
and the doctors at the local hospital also confirmed to us,’ the man, named only as Rahimullah, said.
However, Ghazni provincial police chief Zilawar Zahid denied the reports that the women were stoned to death.
He told reporters: ‘They were killed inside their house.
‘An investigation is under way to find out why they were killed and Afghan police have arrested two men in connection with the case.’
Officials told the BBC that religious leaders had been issuing fatwas – edicts – asking for reports on anyone who was ‘involved in adultery’.
Earlier this year horrific video footage emerged of Taliban insurgents stoning a couple to death for alleged adultery in northern Afghanistan.
It took place in the district of Dashte Archi, in Kunduz, and was met with outrage in the West.
However, a Taliban spokesman defended the practice, saying: ‘Anyone who knows about Islam knows that stoning is in the Koran, and that it is Islamic law.
‘There are people who call it inhuman – but in doing so they insult the Prophet. They want to bring foreign thinking to this country.’
Taliban Executes Young Couple for Trying to Elope
Published 1, April 14, 2009 Criminal law , International , Religion , Society17 Comments
Taliban forces in Afghanistan meted out their brand of Sharia justice this week by executing a 19-year-old woman and 21-year-old-man for the crime of wanting to elope. The couple were shot by a firing squad before witnesses.
The couple was going to try to get to Iran but may have been turned over by their parents or neighbors.
Last year, militants across the border in Pakistan killed five women for wanting to marry men for love.
Taliban executes 14-year-old girl for planning to elope
A 14-year-old girl and her boyfriend have been executed by a Taliban firing squad after being caught eloping.
The pair were shot dead in front of their village mosque as their villagers looked on in south western Afghanistan, a district official said.
Hashim Noorzai, head of Khash Rud district of Nimroz province, said the girl, called Gulsima, had been unhappily engaged to marry when she fell in love with Aziz, aged 17.
The pair attempted to escape the village of Lokhi and planned to head to Iran and marry, but were captured by villagers and dragged back.
After two days of deliberation, a council of elders had been unable to decide how to resolve the dispute, Mr Noorzai said.
Half the elders favoured some way of allowing them to marry, while the other half favoured execution.
As the council was deadlocked, local Taliban militants stepped in, overruled village religious leaders and declared the lovers must be executed, he said.
Ghulam Dastageer Azad, governor of the province, said the execution was an "insult to Islam".
Nimroz, a sparsely-populated, desert province on the borders of Iran and Pakistan has little or no Afghan government or foreign presence.
Taliban militants rule large swathes of the province with impunity and dispense justice based on their own interpretations of Sharia law and tribal code.
Abdul Jabar, police chief of the province, admitted he had no police stations in the district and said and many of the fighters who summarily judged cases were themselves often no more than 18 or 19.
Across the border in Pakistan, a deal to allow Sharia law in the Swat valley has seen Taliban militants hold public executions.
Mobile phone footage appearing to show a 17-year-old woman being publicly flogged for adultery in the valley sparked international outrage earlier this month.
Under Pashtunwali, the tribal morality code in southern Afghanistan, relations between unmarried or unrelated members of opposite sexes are strictly regulated.
Extrajudicial "honour killings" are also practised by families who believe a relative has brought them shame, including by refusing to marry a chosen partner.
The Taliban swept to power in the mid 1990s by offering strict justice and Islamic order after years of chaotic rule by predatory and rapacious warlords.
Their travelling justice commissions continue to settle disputes in much of the lawless south where the government has no power and traditional tribal power has been eroded by decades of war.
Afghanistan: SKSW/WLUML Statement: Stop stoning and other forms of cruel punishments by the Taliban
Source: WLUML
The Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women and the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) International Solidarity Network condemn the recent incidents of violent punishments by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
On Sunday 15 August, a couple in their twenties were publicly executed by stoning by the Taliban in a village controlled by their forces in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan.The couple had eloped to Pakistan, although they were reportedly engaged to other people, but later returned to their village of Mullah Qulli in the Archi district of Kunduz. Some reports indicate that their families had agreed to marry them, while others conclude that a jirga had ruled they would be pardoned if the accused male paid compensation. However, the Taliban arrested and stoned to death the two young people in a bazaar of Dasht-e Archi district on the accusation of committing an act of adultery, as confirmed by Mohammad Omar, the governor of Kunduz.
A week before the execution another woman, Bibi Sanubar, a widow who was pregnant, was reported to have been lashed 200 times in front of a crowd before being killed by a Taliban commander in Badghis province. She had also been accused of adultery after being imprisoned for three days. It is reported that her male partner was not punished and continues to live in the area.
These two incidents signal a very alarming development following the call by the Council of Ulema, Afghanistan's highest Islamic religious body, on the Afghan government to strictly enforce ‘hudood’ (physical punishments) prescribed under the shari’a. The move by the Council is seen as a concession with the Taliban to agree to end their conflict with the Afghan government. Under the Taliban, hudood punishments included public stoning, amputations and lashing, including for alleged transgressions of social norms.
Since the 2001 intervention to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, there have been advances in the field of human rights particularly in respect of women’s rights and gender equality. These fragile gains are in danger of being further eroded as the Karzai government and its foreign supporters show a tendency to compromise human rights in exchange for short-term military and political agreements with the armed insurgent groups, particularly groups represented under the Taliban. In areas still under their control, the Taliban continue to enjoy impunity and have shown little regard for human rights and the laws of war by deliberately targeting civilians, aid workers, and schools (particularly girls’ schools). They have also severely curtailed the rights of women to employment, freedom of movement, political participation and representation.
Our Demands:
We call on the Afghan government and its NATO allies not to allow human rights, particularly the rights women and girls, to be sacrificed in the name of reconciliation with the Taliban and other insurgent groups. Human rights must be guaranteed and monitored in reconciliation efforts with these forces. We support the call of Afghan women that they be meaningfully represented in the planning and implementation of these reconciliation efforts in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
We welcome President Karzai’s statement that "the ruling to stone the two young Afghans by an illegal armed group without a fair trial runs contrary to all human and Islamic principles". We urge the Afghan government to exert all efforts to modify or abolish existing laws (such as in the Penal Code), regulations, customs and practices which discriminate against women in family matters, to:
Ensure that women are given unqualified legal equality with men, in law and in practice, in respect of: the right to freely choose a spouse; to enter into marriage only with full and free consent; equal rights and responsibilities during marriage and its dissolution; and the right not to marry.
Criminalise the following forms of violence against women and girls: family violence including ‘honour crimes’, the giving of girls and women in marriage as a means of dispute resolution; forcing men or women to marry against their will; or otherwise without informed consent, with particular provision in this regard in relation to boys and girls below the legal minimum marriage age: rape, including marital rape and rape of children; and other sexual assaults.
End the detention, imprisonment or any other official action against women for the so-called crime of ‘running away’ and prioritize women’s right to freedom of mobility.
Allow for police and independent observers to investigate any reports of threats, intimidation or violence against women and ensure that law enforcement officials provide protection, especially to women and girls at risk
30 January 2011 - Suicide bomber kills Kandahar deputy governor; Second run-off fails to elect new Parliament speaker; Kabul residents and religious scholars condemn couple stoning by Taliban; Japan donates US$ 5 million for polio immunization efforts; Both Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf and Mohammad Yunus Qanuni fail to win required number of votes to reserve Parliament speaker’s seat; Senate elects its chairman and his deputy; Karzai condemns the attack that killed deputy Kandahar governor; No change in stance about talks - Taliban.
AFGHAN TV NEWS
Tolo TV Headlines
A suicide bomber on Saturday killed Abdul Latif Ashna, the Deputy Governor of southern Kandahar province. President Karzai and the US denounced the attack. A Taliban spokesperson claimed responsibility for the attack.
The new Parliament in two rounds voted to elect the new House speaker, but none of the nominees could win the seat. The House will discuss on Sunday the run-off for the third time.
Mohammad Yunus Qanuni told reporters that MPs will put discussions on the special elections court at the top of their agenda.
Despite President Karzai’s opposition, the Upper House of Parliament on Saturday elected Fazil Hadi Muslimyar as the head of the House. President Karzai had urged the senators not to go for elections until he had introduced 34 appointed members of the House.
A high-level British official has said that a number of Taliban elements are interested in peace talks with Afghan Government. Meanwhile, the Peace Council’s Advisor on International Relations, Mohammad Ismaeil Qasimyar, said that Hekmatyar has also showed interest in holding peace talks with the Government.
Denouncing Saturday’s suicide attack in Kabul, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission urged the warring parties to avoid targeting civilians.
Saturday’s attack in Kabul killed Hamida Barmaki, a lecturer of Kabul University and a human rights activist, and her family, including her husband and three children.
A number of Kabul residents and religious scholars condemned the stoning of a newly-wed couple by Taliban in northern Kunduz province.
Ariana TV Headlines
US President, Barrack Obama, in a meeting with the authorities, in his administration emphasized on US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in July 2011.
Three members of a family died and four other wounded when an unexploded ordinance went off in Nara of Kunar.
Japan donates US$ 5 million to the Ministry of Public Health for polio immunization efforts. Polio immunization programmes have decreased by 20 per cent in Afghanistan. Thirty cases of polio were detected in the country last year.
Shamshad TV Headlines
Joint NATO-Afghan operations kills two Taliban commanders. Spokesman for the Helmand governor said four workers of a private security company in Helmand were killed as a result of roadside mine explosion.
Afghan law expert, Abdul Satar Sadat, said the Lower House’s internal work regulation does not allow for a third round of elections for the position of speaker. Therefore, the interim speaker cannot hold a third round of elections according to Article No 8 of the regulation. Also, the interim speaker cannot amend the regulation.
International troops and Afghan forces freed Sarab district of Uruzgan from Taliban control. At a meeting with tribal elders, the Australian ambassador to Afghanistan and the Uruzgan governor talked on the problems that exist in the reconstruction of the district after its emancipation.
People in Kabul, Herat, Balkh and Jalalabad staged protest demonstrations against the execution of prisoners in Iran.
AFGHAN PRINT MEDIA
Hasht-e-Subh Daily
Some informed sources said a deal made between Rasul Sayyaf and Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq caused the inconclusive result for the election of House speaker.
Yunus Qanuni is an experienced person who led the previous Parliament with all its challenges. Rasoul Sayyaf is also an influential person, but he lacks management skills for major institutions like the Parliament.
The governor of Ghazni province, Musa Khan Akbarzada, said the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) has approved more uplift projects for the province in the coming Afghan new year.
In an article entitled “Pakistan and unsustainable cooperation” the author writes that Pakistan competes with Iran in seeking its interests in Afghanistan. It is difficult to believe that Pakistan would adopt a stable approach in ensuring peace in Afghanistan.
Mandegar Daily
Evidence shows that Rasul Sayyaf was the Government’s favourite to win the speaker’s seat in the new Parliament. It is said President Karzai and his team have made lots of efforts for Sayyaf’s election and paid huge amounts of money to a number of MPs.
Arman-e-Milli Daily
The Taliban encourage women to become suicide bombers, preventing them from social activities.
Daily Afghanistan
Afghanistan said it sustained over US$ 50 million in losses due to the fuel ban imposed by Iran over the past two months.
Afghanistan Times
Both candidates for the post of Lower House Speaker, Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf and Mohammad Younus Qanooni, failed to win the required number of votes on Saturday, creating a dilemma for the newly inaugurated Parliament, said officials. The Parliamentarians will elect their administrative board on Sunday, said the interim speaker of the House, Mohammad Sarwar Osmani.
President Karzai has strongly condemned the assassination of the Kandahar deputy governor who was targeted by a suicide attacker in District Five of Kandahar city on Saturday.
Some 128 militants have handed over their weapons and joined the Afghan National Army forces in Kohistanat district of Sar-i-Pul province, according to a press release issued by the Afghan Ministry of Defence.
Outlook Afghanistan
The Afghan Senate has elected “unopposed” Fazal Hadi Muslimyar as chairman and Muhammad Alam Ezedyar as first deputy chairman of the House on Saturday.
An unexploded mortar shell went off when children were playing with it in Ghaziabad district of Kunar province on Saturday, killing two minors and injuring three women, said the provincial police chief.
Japan on Saturday pledged about US$ 5.5 million (248.7 million Afghanis) to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health for polio vaccination drives. An agreement in this regard was signed in Kabul by Acting Public Health Minister Dr Suraya Dalil, Japanese Ambassador to Afghanistan Shigeuki Hiroke and UNICEF Representative Peter Crowley. In coordination with UNICEF, the money will be spent on vaccination campaigns, purchase of equipment and creating public awareness about the crippling disease, said Crowley.
The Taliban rejected the reports of a high-ranking official of the United Kingdom that the Taliban are now ready for negotiations. Talking to the (AIP) on Saturday, a Taliban spokesperson, Qari Mohammad Yousuf Ahmadi, said Taliban stance regarding the negotiations has not changed.
Kabul Times
Afghan Mines and Industries Minister Waheedullah Shahrani said on Saturday that mineral deposits in just 30 per cent of Afghanistan’s territory is worth around US$ 3 trillion, adding that the survey of the country’s remaining territory will be conducted in the future.
Cheragh Daily
Only 30 per cent of Afghanistan’s mines have been surveyed.
Following the recommendation of the incumbent Upper House members, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs says the 34 members to be appointed by the President are to be introduced to the House within some days.
Erada Daily
Demonstrators in Kabul and Jalalabad condemned the executions in Iran. The Iran Government executed both Iranians and Afghans.
To be successful in its work, the parliament ought to observe a balance between its independence and its relationship with the government.
Because of not having a proper program, more than 50 per cent of pistachio forests in Badghis have been destroyed.
Daily Rah-e Nejat
Human Rights institutions in Kapisa expressed concern over the increase in violence against women in Kapisa.
Unidentified armed men killed a 20-year-old lady who worked for Barrac Bank in Parwan.
A number of people’s representatives in the Samangan Provincial Council expressed concern over the increasing influence of Taliban in Dara-e Soof district of the province.
Sarnavesht Daily
The Office of the Attorney-General in Helmand has accused a number of authorities at the local Kabul Bank office of corruption, as a result of which the bank has been closed, creating a problem to the residents in the province.
State Media Editorials
Eslah Daily
A high-ranking official in Britain’s foreign secretariat has stated that the Taliban are willing to negotiate. The daily welcomed the willingness of the Taliban to resolve their issues through negotiations, and called on the Peace Council to use the opportunity.
Private Media Editorials
Hasht-e-Subh Daily
A number of analysts say that the Government does not want the House speaker to be elected until the special elections court has issued its verdict. The Parliament, by electing the new speaker, will demonstrate what issues they will prioritize.
Arman-e-Milli Daily
Recently the Afghan and Pakistan Governments agreed to exchange the prisoners of the two nations. Based on the agreement, all Pakistanis in Afghanistan jails who have been detained and tried on criminal or terrorist charges will be released. It is not clear on what justifications the Afghan Government has made this unjust deal.
Daily Afghanistan
It is said that the Government and the opposition groups lobbied for Rasul Sayyaf and Yunus Qanuni, respectively, to be elected as the new speaker of the Parliament. The competition between Sayyaf and Qanuni to get seated as the speaker of the House ended with no result, indicating that the Government still has influence over the new Parliament.
Outlook Afghanistan
Referring to Taliban attacks in Kabul, the author warns against the insurgency expanding from the traditional insecure provinces to the north and other peaceful regions of Afghanistan. Such attacks not only create a horrific environment in the country, but also discourage national and international investments on development activities. If the Government fails to secure the capital, why should it take on the defence responsibilities for Afghanistan on its own in the future?
Erada Daily
Analysts say foreign private security companies ought to be dissolved based on the ongoing conditions in Afghanistan, because they have transformed into agents of insecurity.
Weesa Daily
Who will be elected the Lower House speaker is not important; what is important is that the House be successful in establishing peace and in removing the influence of foreign countries from Afghanistan.
Cheragh Daily
Who will be elected Lower House or the Upper House speakers is not important to the public, because the members of the Houses won the election through fraud. In addition to that, none of the Houses had a good work record from the previous period.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Paktya (RTA) Headlines
NATO forces killed two insurgents in Nawry village of Sabari district in Khost province.
Herat (H-Paper) Headlines
The RC-West International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) Predator drone fell on the Guzara district desert on Saturday. A national security official who asked not to be identified said that they found the parts of the drone in the desert.
Two Talib militant commanders were arrested on Saturday in Pusht Road district area in a joint clean-up operation of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and the Afghan National Police (ANP).
Talib militants killed an ANP member in Zerkoh area of Shindand district on Saturday.
The Taliban militants in Obe district of Herat province abducted two truck drivers on Saturday.
Herat police ordered the arrest of any foreign citizen who does not have a working license.
Afghanistan: Stop the stoning and other forms of cruel punishments by theTaliban
The Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women and the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) International Solidarity Network condemn the recent incidents of violent punishments by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
On Sunday 15 August, a couple in their twenties were publicly executed by stoning by the Taliban in a village controlled by their forces in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan. The couple had eloped to Pakistan though were reported to have been engaged to other people, but returned to their village of Mullah Qulli in Archi district of Kunduz. Some reports indicate their families had agreed to marry them, and others that a jirga had ruled they would be excused if the man paid compensation. The Taliban arrested the two and they were stoned to death in a bazaar of Dasht-e Archi district on the accusation of committing the act of adultery as confirmed by Mohammad Omar, the governor of Kunduz.
A week before the execution, Bibi Sanubar, a widow who was pregnant, was reported to have been lashed 200 times in front of a crowd before being killed by a Taliban commander in northwestern Badghis province. She had also been accused of adultery, tried and convicted after being kept imprisoned for three days. It is reported that her male partner was not punished and continues to live in the area.
These two incidents signal a very alarming development following the call by the Council of Ulema, Afghanistan’s highest Islamic religious body, on the Afghan government to strictly enforce ‘hudood’ (physical punishments) prescribed under the shari’a. The move by the Council is seen as a concession with the Taliban to agree in ending their conflict with the Afghan government. Under the Taliban, hudood punishments included public stoning, amputations and lashing, including for alleged transgressions of social norms.
Since the 2001 intervention to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, there have been advances in the field of human rights particularly in respect for women’s rights and gender equality. These fragile gains are in danger of being further eroded as the Karzai government and its foreign supporters show a tendency to compromise human rights in exchange for short-term military and political agreements with the armed insurgent groups particularly groups represented under the Taliban. In areas still under their control, the Taliban continue to enjoy impunity and have shown little regard for human rights and the laws of war by deliberately targeting civilians, aid workers, and schools (particularly girls’ schools). They have also severely curtailed the rights of women to employment, freedom of movement, political participation and representation.
Our Demands:
We call on the Afghan government and its NATO allies not to allow human rights, particularly the rights women and girls, to become the sacrifice in the name of reconciliation with the Taliban and other insurgent groups. Human rights must be guaranteed and monitored in reconciliation efforts with these forces. We support the call of Afghan women to be meaningfully represented in the planning and implementation of these reconciliation efforts in line with the UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
We welcome President Karzai’s statement that "the ruling to stone the two young Afghans by an illegal armed group without a fair trial runs contrary to all human and Islamic principles". We urge the Afghan government to exert all efforts to modify or abolish existing laws (such as in the Penal Code), regulations, customs and practices which discriminate against women in family matters, to:
Ensure that women are given unqualified legal equality with men, in law and in practice, in respect of: the right to freely choose a spouse; to enter into marriage only with full and free consent; equal rights and responsibilities during marriage and its dissolution; and the right not to marry.
Criminalise the following forms of violence against women and girls: family violence including ‘honour crimes’, the giving of girls and women in marriage as a means of dispute resolution; forcing men or women to marry against their will; or otherwise without informed consent, with particular provision in this regard in relation to boys and girls below the legal minimum marriage age: rape, including marital rape and rape of children; and other sexual assaults.
End the detention, imprisonment or any other official action against women for the so-called crime of ‘running away’ and prioritize women’s right to freedom of mobility.
Police and independent observers must investigate any reports of threats, intimidation or violence against women and law enforcement officials must provide protection, especially to women and girls at risk. http://www.wluml.org/node/6590
Women Living Under Muslim Laws International Solidarity Network
www.wluml.org
wluml aAZ wluml.org
The Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women
www.stop-killing.org
info aAZ stop-stoning.org
Stoning Of Afghan Couple For Adultery Sparks Debate On Shari'a Law
Mullah Wakeel, a Taliban leader, show a copy of the Afghan Taliban's code of conduct. Scholars say the Taliban has no authority to enforce Islamic law.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has added his voice to those condemning the Taliban-orchestrated execution by stoning of a young couple charged with adultery.
The stonings in the northeastern province of Konduz on August 15 are considered the first such executions ordered by the Taliban since its overthrow from power nine years ago.
The executions, carried out in a village under Taliban control, have been widely condemned by Afghan civil-society representatives, international human rights watchdogs, and prominent Muslim scholars in Afghanistan and beyond.
In a statement, Karzai termed the killings an "unforgivable crime." He said that "the ruling to stone the two young Afghans by an illegal armed group without a fair trial runs contrary to all human and Islamic principles."
The man and woman, both in their 20s, were reportedly tricked into returning to their native village last week after eloping recently. Taliban militants seized them upon arrival and convened a council of the local mullahs to sentence them to death.
The executions bring into focus a burgeoning debate on the meaning of Shari'a-based law in Afghanistan. Last week, 350 Islamic clerics gathered in Kabul and called for the implementation of a strict Islamic criminal code, or "Hudood." The demand came despite the fact that the country's current constitution already stipulates that all laws should comply with Shari'a.
At issue is whether Shari'a is a set of specific rules or the ethos behind a complicated tradition that is subject to different interpretations.
Were the assembled clerics calling for a fundamentally different system of justice from what the drafters of the Afghan Constitution understood as Shari'a? The question is not academic. How it is answered will determine whether a broad-minded understanding of Shari'a that is largely consistent with universal notions of human rights will prevail over the most hard-line interpretations of Islamic law.
Guarantee Of Human Rights
While affirming Islam as the state religion and affirming that all Afghan laws will be consistent with Islam, the Afghan Constitution also guarantees the observance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other global human rights conventions.
Speaking to RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan, Maulvi Abdul Nasir, a prominent cleric in Dasht-e Archi, where the executions took place, condemned the stoning. Nasir says he did not know anything about the specific execution, but that handing down such judgments was wrong in principle.
“According to Islamic injunctions and Shari'a, a person can be convicted for adultery if the accused confesses to his or her crime on four different occasions, and only if four eyewitnesses saw the accused committing the crime," Nasir explains. "Without that, even their testimony cannot be accepted. All the witnesses should be of just reputation and have never been accused of any wrongdoing."
Nasir says that such witnesses could testify only if a "qazi," an Islamic judge, summoned them. "Without fulfilling these conditions, a stoning verdict can be considered a matter of force and is devoid of all legal basis, according to Shari'a," he adds.
Maulvi Siddiqullah Muslim, head of the decree department at the Supreme Court in Kabul, sees no contradiction between Shari'a and Afghanistan's commitment to human rights.
Muslim tells RFE/RL that together with the Koran and Sunnah -- the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad -- Shari'a clearly recognizes the consensus of Islamic scholars. This means, in his view, that only a state authority can implement Islamic law.
"Islamic scholars, through a lengthy debate spanning the ages, have proved that to implement the Islamic penal code, all the cases should be referred to the administrative and judicial organs of the state, which will then come to a decision," Muslim says.
Muslim says that Afghan court decisions in such cases are implemented through a decree from the Afghan president.
No Legal Authority
Hamid Mohammad Abu Talib, a former dean of the Shari'a faculty at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, agrees. He says that a group of armed individuals cannot try people or carry out Islamic punishments, even when their crimes are proved.
"Applied to the situation in Afghanistan, the internationally recognized government of President Karzai is the binding authority," Abu Talib says. "Therefore, it is not allowed for those who have seized control of some place [within Afghanistan] to set up a court and issue sentences. This is because they cannot be considered an organized and recognized government. They are only a group of people who have forced their control over a particular place. And they do not have the legal sanction to rule, and nobody recognizes them."
Abu Talib says the Islamic penal code can only be implemented in an Islamic state where "the situation is stable, citizens and their properties are safe, and their economic sustenance in ensured."
For the Taliban and other armed groups in Afghanistan, establishing an Islamic utopia remains a cherished goal. But the model they once established and want to revert to now is based on fear rather than citizens’ voluntary participation -- something most Islamic scholars strongly reject.
Hundreds of rocks are thrown at her head
As the Afghan Government continues its wooing overtures to the Taliban, and Karzai whines about “foreign interference” in his latest meddling in Afghan parliamentary democracy, the Taliban execute a couple by stoning them to death in Kunduz province in front of a crowd of hundreds.
The crime? The couple fell in love and attempted to elope, beyond a community where relationships based on mutual love and attraction, and not on money and perversion, might have a chance of fulfillment.
The BBC has short clips of the horrific murders, noting that “most of the video is too graphic to be shown.” The event is described as follows:
The video begins with Siddqa, a 25-year-old woman, standing waist-deep in a hole in the ground.
She is entirely hidden in a blue burka. Hundreds of men from the village are gathered as two mullahs pass sentence. As Taliban fighters look on, the sentence is passed and she is found guilty of adultery.
The stoning lasts two minutes. Hundreds of rocks – some larger than a man’s fist – are thrown at her head and body. She tries to crawl out of the hole, but is beaten back by the stones. A boulder is then thrown at her head, her burka is soaked in blood, and she collapses inside the hole.
Incredibly Siddqa was still alive. The mullahs are heard saying she should be left alone. But a Taliban fighter steps forward with a rifle and she is shot three times.
Then her lover, Khayyam, is brought to the crowd. His hands are tied behind his back. Before he is blindfolded he looks into the mobile phone camera. He appears defiant.
The attack on him is even more ferocious. His body, lying face down, jerks as the rocks meet their target. He is heard to be crying, but is soon silent.
In between the murders, a man is showing clacking two large stones together, deliriously excited at the prospect of participating in what amounts to a viciously drawn out execution. It’s a sunny day and hundreds are gathered to witness this crime, all of them undeniably complicit in it. It’s an almost unbelievable communal deficit of conscience, were it not preserved on film proving this scene devoid of humanity really did take place, in all of its grisly actuality.
A Taliban spokesperson defends the stoning, quipping about the dangers of “foreign thinking” in Afghanistan (in reference to people who call stoning to death inhuman). A spectator had used a mobile phone, one product of demonic “foreign thinking” to record this atrocity, standing idly by, gleefully filming the scene as if it were an amusing event he happened to pass by.
It’s an indefensible abomination, and nothing should signal more clearly that the Taliban have not reformed, that they will never reform. ‘Taliban’ and ‘reform’ are opposing forces in the 21st century, and the longer the Afghan Government takes to realize this, the more destructive their pandering to these degenerates will be for the citizens of Afghanistan. To even suggest power sharing or deal-making with the death-cult psychopaths that are the Taliban is a searing insult to the people of Afghanistan, and a signed death warrant to all of the country’s free thinkers, democrats, intellectuals, feminists and idealists.
Today is the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, an occasion that should perhaps inspire a solemn reminder to confront atrocities and crimes against humanity. Nearly 70 years have passed since the Holocaust and the declaration of “never again”, which set the stage for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. How is it that we continue to condone the barbaric treatment of human beings in other lands? How have we reached a point, in 2011, where we would contemplate allowing any place in the world for the ideology of the Taliban, and its ugly manifestations in the form of a bludgeoned young woman and her lover?
How very far we have yet to go.
I reposted this video with comments enabled since it was posted here by another LLer with comments disabled.
I found a couple of news stories that appear to match this event, both from August, 2010. There are some differences between the two stories relating to the marital status of the couple. This one is from Al Jazeera:
The Taliban in Afghanistan has publicly stoned to death a man and a woman over an alleged love affair, government officials said.
Sunday's execution is the first by the Taliban in the Kunduz province and follows last week's call by Afghan clerics for a return to sharia and capital punishments under Islamic law.
Hoda Abdel-Hamid, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the Afghan capital, Kabul, said a local Taliban commander confirmed that the man was a married 28-year-old, while the woman was in her early twenties, engaged to marry someone else.
"The couple were brought into an open field and about 100 Taliban or supporters of the Taliban gathered and began stoning them just after a Taliban supporter read out a statement of their confession."
Condemnation
Amnesty International has condemned the latest executions.
"The stoning of this couple is a heinous crime. The Taliban and other insurgent groups are growing increasingly brutal in their abuses against Afghans," Sam Zarifi, the rights group's Asia-Pacific director, said in a press statement.
"Afghan leaders must stand against stoning and other appalling human rights abuses masquerading as 'justice', no matter how much pressure they are under to deal with the Taliban."
On Monday, a spokesman for Nato-led forces criticised the Taliban for carrying out what he said were acts of indiscriminate violence against ordinary Afghans.
"They have increased acts of violence and repression against innocent Afghans," Brigadier General Josef Blotz told reporters.
"The insurgents have clearly given up winning over the population, knowing that they don't have an appealing vision for the people."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/2010816171115397111.html
This one is from UPI:
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Amnesty International has condemned the "sickening" Taliban stoning execution of a couple for eloping in Afghanistan.
The organization confirmed the execution Sunday in the Taliban-controlled village in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan, a release by the group said.
"The stoning of this couple is a heinous crime," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director. "The Taliban and other insurgent groups are growing increasingly brutal in their abuses against Afghans."
The stoning came two days after the Council of Ulema, Afghanistan's highest Islamic religious body, called on the government to strictly enforce physical Shariah punishments as a concession to the Taliban in an attempt to end the war, Amnesty International says.
Under the Taliban, punishments include public stoning, amputations and lashings.
Local sources said the couple had eloped to Pakistan, but returned to their village in Afghanistan after being told their families had agreed to marry them.
Instead, they were stoned to death by a Taliban council, Amnesty International said.
"The Afghan government and the Council of Ulema must condemn the use of stoning following this sickening Taliban execution," Zarifi said. "Afghan leaders must stand against stoning and other appalling human rights abuses masquerading as 'justice,' no matter how much pressure they are under to deal with the Taliban."
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/08/16/Group-denounces-Taliban-stoning-of-couple/UPI-73101281983461/
Click to view image: 'de868c364c8a-61a12808b70c_thumb_1.jpg'
Shocking footage emerges of Taliban stoning couple to death
A disturbing video of a man and woman being executed by the Taliban has been released by Afghan security forces.
The two people have been publicly stoned to death in Afghanistan's once peaceful north over an alleged love affair.
The alleged lovers, who were engaged to be married to other people, were arrested by the Taliban on the request of their families after they tried to elope.
The video shows a woman wearing a blue burkah buried up to her waist as a baying crowd hurl rocks at her head and body.
She is then shot three times by a Taliban fighter.
Her alleged lover is then blindfolded and his hands tied behind his back before he also is battered by a barrage of rocks.
Disturbing footage of Taliban execution shocks Pakistan
Taliban gunmen have been filmed executing a surprised couple in Pakistan for the alleged crime of adultery.
In the mobile phone footage which is being watched with horror by Pakistanis, the couple try to flee when they realise what is about to happen.
But a gunman casually shoots the man and then the woman in the back with a burst of gunfire, leaving them bleeding in the dirt.
Moments later, when others in the execution party shout out that they are still alive, he returns to coldly finish them with a few more rounds.
Their "crime" was an alleged affair in their remote mountain village controlled by militants in an area that was only recently under the government's sway. It was the kind of barbarity that has become increasingly familiar across Pakistan as the Taliban tide has spread
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