The Taliban fundamentalist movement has responded to UN criticism of the whipping punishments they are imposing on the Afghan population; allegations it has deplored as an «insult to Islam» and to the laws underpinning their use of flogging.
The spokeswoman of the United Nations Office for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, declared herself last Friday «dismayed» by the use of whipping as a public punishment with cases such as the one that occurred last Wednesday in the province of Logar, where 14 people were victims of this «aberrant» punishment.
In response, the usual Taliban spokesman and deputy information minister, Zabiullah Mujahid, considered these statements as an «insult to Islam and a violation of international principles».
«Countries and organizations should not allow self-interested individuals to make irresponsible and provocative remarks about Islam and its rules in their name,» he said on his Twitter account.
Taliban leader Mullah Hebatullah Ajundzada recently ordered Afghanistan’s judges to fully apply ‘sharia’ — or Islamic law — against those who commit a range of crimes that could be punishable even by public amputations or stoning for offenses such as robbery, kidnapping or sedition.
