The Enduring Deterrent Effect of Amputations and Public Executions

Taliban leader Mullah Nooruddin Turabi AP

"Everyone criticized us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments." 

"No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Qur'an."

"Cutting off of hands is very necessary for security [deterrent effect. The Cabinet is studying whether to do punishments in public and will] develop a policy."

"[The Taliban would allow television, mobile phones, photos and video] because this is the necessity of the people, and we are serious about it."

"[The Taliban views the media as a way to spread their message.] Now we know instead of reaching just hundreds, we can reach millions."

"We had complete safety in every part of the country [in the late 1990s of their previous rule]."

Taliban co-founder, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi

The Taliban swiftly grasped control of Afghanistan amid the withdrawal of U.S troops from the country last month. There are continuing signs the Taliban's hardline views and tactics are not a thing of the past. (West Asia News Agency/Reuters)

 

"It’s not a good thing to see these people being shamed in public, but it stops the criminals because when people see it, they think ‘I don’t want that to be me'."

Amaan, Kabul store owner

 

"In our Sharia it's clear, for those who have sex and are unmarried, whether it's a girl or a boy, the punishment is 100 lashes in public."

:But for anyone who's married, they have to be stoned to death..."

"For those who steal: if it's proved, then his hand should be cut off."

Taliban judge in Balkh, Haji Badruddin

The genteel reassurance has been revealed for what it was, a purely temporary ruse to persuade the outside world that the Taliban are really responsible caretakers of Afghanistan. Not what the media in the West make them out to be; fanatical Islamist fundamentalists following sharia to the letter of its laws as they interpret them; no shades of grey, rigidly black-and-white: guilty as charged renders an accused vulnerable to amputation or public execution.

 

The Taliban view corporal punishment as educational devices; a warning to any others who might conceivably be contemplating criminal offences, anathema in the considered opinion of the pious Islamists who honour Islam and the Prophet Mohammad by closely following sacred instructions on managing lawbreakers by extracting painful punishments of permanent disfigurements (lopping off ears and noses), amputations (complete disablement), or surrender of life itself.

 

It has started. Once again capital punishment for social crimes is meted out; kidnapping meriting death, the body hung in a public square hanging off a crane. For lesser crimes public humiliation will do; steal bread because you're hungry and bread will be stuffed in your mouth, and you paraded as a criminal-thief displayed on the back of a truck as it drives down busy streets, drawing the attention of shoppers, business people, idlers and burqa-clad women. Citizens are required to witness, to take note, to understand this could be their fate should they dare to bring offence.

 

People look up at a dead body hung by the Taliban from a crane — not shown in this image — in the main square of the city of Herat, in western Afghanistan, on Saturday. (The Associated Press)

 

As yet the governing council of the Taliban is undecided whether public executions will take place in public. As an entertainment with a message 'Do not emulate the forbidden actions of these criminal elements among you. See how they pay the price for their actions!' And when executions are in the offing the public is informed and advised that attendance is not optional. Unless they can be trusted to view at a distance via social media; a new and improved innovation; marrying modern technology to ancient barbaric rituals.

 

Nooruddin Turabi, a Taliban co-founder known for formulating and administering the rules of deterrence in the first iteration of the governing Taliban, and now a venerable 60 years of age, has been reappointed to the vital role of overseeing the vice and virtues of the people of Afghanistan. Morality is a subject of great moment to this government. It must be upheld as the pinnacle of Islamic values, instructing all of the expectations incumbent upon them as proud citizens of an ancient country. 

 

There have been reports of women's rights being brutally restricted   Reuters

 

City streets will once again be patrolled by the morality police, and dress infractions by women will be instantly met with appropriate punishment; the public humiliation of public beatings. The lesson driven home, if need be, that it is better, much, much better for one's peace of mind, much less reputation to be honoured as a modest woman in full compliance with Islamist custom and sharia law, to be fully encased in stifling dark fabric, peering at the world through a narrow slit, taking care no inch of bare skin can be seen by helplessly lascivious men.

No more music, no more dancing, no more drama classes, or parties. None of which do honour to Islam. Men and women must not be seen in close proximity; women should ideally be accompanied by male family members, never speaking to men, nor looking directly at them without betraying their wantonness. Requiring due correction. The greater tolerance of social mores not in concert with Islamist principles hinted at previously have been reconsidered.

 

Men's beards must be fully visible, not snipped short and they too must dress themselves modestly. However, this new Taliban reiteration is not destined to completely re-enact previous restrictions where girls may not under any circumstances attend school or exit their homes, as long as the sexes are completely separated some concessions may apply in educating girls. The expansion of the previous edicts that only females may administer medical services to females has been expanded to include women judges sitting in judgement of other women.

The more tolerant Taliban will now permit television, cellphones and media. "This is the necessity of the people, and we are serious about it. Now we know instead of reaching just hundreds,we can reach millions". The Taliban has exited the dark ages....

 

On September 8, 2021, journalists Nemat Naqdi (left) and Taqi Daryabi were tortured and beaten by Taliban fighters for reporting on women’s rights.

MARCUS YAM / LOS ANGELES TIMES