Taliban on Sharia Law
Taliban has ordered judges in Afghanistan to fully impose their interpretation of Sharia Law, including potential public executions, amputations, and flogging, reported by media. According to many experts, this will lead to a further deterioration of human rights in impoverished country.
Alaiqadar Amirul Momineen, the Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, gave the “obligatory” order after meeting with judges to “examine the cases of thieves, kidnappers, and seditionists,” according to a statement from the Taliban’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid.
“You are required to issue the restriction and punishment in those situations that have satisfied all the Shariah requirements of payback, since this is the order of the Sharia… and it is obligated to respond,” Mujahid tweeted on Sunday.
One of the foremost experts on Sharia law in the world, Kaheld Abou El Fadl, a professor of Islamic Law at UCLA, stated that there has long been controversy around the laws of Sharia and varied interpretations of what they entail.
Every legal issue has ten opposing viewpoints. Sharia is quite flexible, he claimed. El Fadl explained that according to Islamic law, sharia law is the “search for the divine intent.” Although it is usual to use Sharia and Islamic law interchangeably in both Western and native discussions.
Also Read: ‘God-forsaken place’: Afghanistan still a nightmare for America
Taliban’s Outrageous Decision
They have decided to keep secondary schools closed to girls and to prohibit women from attending colleges has been denounced by the United States.
Ned Price, a spokesman for the US State Department, said, “The US condemns the Taliban’s unjustifiable decision to bar women from attending universities, to keep secondary schools closed to girls, and to continue to impose other restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan to exercise their fundamental freedoms and human rights.”
US condemns, Taliban’s indefensible decision to ban women from universities, to keep secondary schools closed to girls, & to continue to impose other restrictions on women & girls in Afghanistan to exercise their human rights & fundamental freedoms: US State Dept spox Ned Price pic.twitter.com/I2DfHnY6bj
— ANI (@ANI) December 21, 2022
When the Taliban was last in power, from 1996 to 2001, they followed a rigid interpretation of the religion that included brutal punishments such public executions, stoning, floggings, and amputations.
According to El Fadl, the bulk of Islamic jurists throughout history didn’t understand the law the same way the Taliban does, hence severe punishments were seldom carried out within the 14000-year tradition of Sharia.
El Fadl asserted that it was impossible to disregard the Taliban’s peculiar interpretation of Sharia. Anyone who doesn’t suit their definition may be executed, according to them.
Women in Afghanistan can no longer work in most sectors and require a male guardian for long-distance travel, while girls have been barred from returning to secondary school. Last week, women were stopped from entering amusement parks in the capital Kabul after the Taliban’s morality ministry said women’s access to public parks would be restricted.
Deeply dismayed by the announcement from the Taliban denying women the right to a university education. Afghan women deserve better. Afghanistan deserves better. The Taliban have just definitively set back their objective of being accepted by the international community.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) December 20, 2022
The Taliban’s recent pronouncement concerning Sharia law, according to Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, was “worrying.”
We anticipate them to maintain their vow to preserve the current human rights commitments made in Afghanistan since they have assumed the role of de facto power, according to Haq. “They haven’t been keeping their promises. We will keep pursuing this with them. All forms of the death punishment are unacceptable to us.
