Young people ‘flogged by extremists’ for wearing jeans
A GROUP of young Afghans have said they were flogged by Taliban fighters for the crime of wearing jeans.
In a post widely shared on Facebook, an Afghan youth said they were “walking with friends in Kabul”, when they encountered a group of Taliban soldiers who accused them of disrespecting Islam. Two of the friends escaped, the youth said, but the others were beaten, whipped on their necks and threatened at gunpoint.
The Afghan newspaper Etilaatroz reported over the weekend that one of its journalists had also been beaten for not wearing “Afghan clothes”, such as full-body gowns. There have been other reports of Afghan youths being targeted for wearing T-shirts. A Taliban official told Etilaatroz that the movement was still deciding on the dress code for men.
Both incidents will increase concerns that little has changed in the Taliban since the late 1990s, when it was commonplace for Afghans caught without religious clothing to be beaten or even killed. During the first period of its control over Afghanistan, which ended with the US invasion in 2001, the Taliban was known for its misogyny, religious extremism and brutal punishments. Women who broke the Taliban’s rules were routinely flogged or executed. Forced to wear a burqa from the age of eight, they were also banned from working and going to school, or even from leaving the house.
In Kandahar, women who painted their nails could have had their fingers cut off, and there was a ban on them wearing shoes with heels as “no stranger should hear a woman’s footsteps”.
Since taking power for the second time in Afghanistan, Taliban leaders have sought to present themselves to Western observers as a more moderate group. They claim, for instance, that the Taliban will respect women.
However, there have been numerous reports of female workers being ordered to leave their jobs and to send a male relative to take their place.