AFGHANISTAN: Judicial CP

No information is to hand about CP in Afghanistan in the pre-Taliban era.

During the Taliban's period in power (1996-2001), floggings were ordered by Islamic (Sharia) courts, notably for adultery and often of women. Amnesty International (see external links below) mentions over a dozen such sentences in 2000 and at least 30 in 2001. These figures seem very low, and possibly refer only to public floggings to which local publicity was given. Other whippings were carried out in prison and probably went unreported ("Afghan drug sellers punished with humiliation", USA Today, 18 October 2001).

Public floggings were also administered to corrupt government officials, as reported in this Oct 1998 news item.

Eyewitness accounts are rare, and it is unclear whether there was any consistency about the modus operandi. This April 1999 news item, about the public flogging of a young woman for adultery, and of her mother for not informing the authorities, gives a bit of (second-hand) detail. It also describes another flogging on the same day, of nine men convicted of gambling.

The instrument of choice appears to have been a leather strap or paddle known as a dura. According to one report, this was five inches wide ("In Afghanistan, Inept Bureaucracy Gives Way to Chaotic Kleptocracy", Los Angeles Times, 26 November 2001). The same report claims that smoking cannabis was one of the offences for which floggings were imposed.

At least some Taliban floggings were apparently intended only to be humiliating rather than painful, as described in this April 1997 news report of a case in which give men "received a symbolic lashing on their backs and legs" wearing three layers of clothing. In this case the leather whip is described as being 60cm long and 6cm wide.

In another report, the leather strap was said to be reinforced with steel, but "administered lightly" ("Muslims condemn Taliban's swift and brutal word of God", Daily Telegraph, London, 24 May 1998).

Floggings were also sometimes carried out on the spot by the "religious police", apparently without any court hearing. There is a short video clip of a woman being flogged in a Kabul street in 2001 for removing her burqa in public.

The Taliban was removed from central power at the end of 2001, but they still control some areas, and there is still no properly functioning national judicial system. In rural areas, local tribal courts have been left to their own devices and some have imposed (theoretically illicit) floggings, according to US State Department reports.

Even in Kabul, it is not absolutely certain that JCP has stopped, according to this Feb 2006 news item.

EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)

• An anti-CP website, GITEACPOC, says JCP would now be unlawful, but this must be a somewhat hazy concept in a territory where the rule of law is far from fully established. It asserts that, in any event, CP is not used as a sentence in juvenile courts.
  
  
• US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 1997 [HISTORY]
  This, the first extant USSD report to mention JCP in Afghanistan, states that a UNICEF employee was given 10 lashes in front of a crowd, and that the Taliban gave a driver 25 lashes on the spot for allowing a woman to ride in the front seat of his vehicle.
  
  
• Amnesty International Report 1998 [HISTORY]  (Alternative link)
  Confirms that floggings were still being imposed in 1997 and gives one or two examples.
  
  
• April 1998: Flagrant Abuse of the Right to Life and Dignity [HISTORY]
  More information from Amnesty about Taliban floggings; one was "applied lightly with a leather strap".
  
  
• US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 1998 [HISTORY]
  Reports that adulterers were publicly whipped with 100 lashes and cites a couple of cases. (The 1999, 2000 and 2001 reports add nothing new.)
  
  
• Amnesty International Report 1999 [HISTORY]  (Alternative link)
  Mentions the case of a woman who was given 100 lashes before a crowd of 30,000 spectators.
  
  
• Amnesty International Report 2001 [HISTORY]  (Alternative link)
  
• Amnesty International Report 2002 [HISTORY]  (Alternative link)
  Shari'a courts ordered at least a dozen floggings during 2000, and at least 30 during 2001, including 20 women.
  
  
• US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2002
  There was no functioning national judicial system; local courts "relied on some interpretation of Islamic law and traditional tribal codes of justice". The report doesn't specifically mention JCP.
  
  
• US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2003
  In rural areas, the administration of justice was left to local tribal councils, some of which imposed floggings. The implication seems to be that there was no JCP by the official courts in the cities, though this is not made explicit. (The 2004 and 2005 USSD reports add nothing new.)
  
  
• "The Whole Justice System of Afghanistan is Rotten"
  Report in the US Christian Science Monitor (February 2006) gives more general background on the situation then. No specific mention of CP.
  
  

AFGHANISTAN: School CP

EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)

• School Beatings Widespread  (Alternative link)
  News item from July 2004 suggesting that "corporal punishment" is used routinely in schools under the post-Taliban regime. However, as often seems to be the case in that region of the world, the actual cases quoted (students being punched and kicked, for instance) have nothing to do with proper CP. There are even references to students requiring hospital treatment. That is not corporal punishment, it is simple brutality. Journalists and activists need to stop misusing the language in this manner.
  
  

• According to GITEACPOC, in June 2006 the Ministry of Education announced that "any form of violent behaviours and punishment against children" was prohibited. It is not clear whether this ban also covers genuine CP in the form of ordinary, moderate, non-violent caning and spanking.