In a result anyone watching Joe Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan could see coming, the Taliban have announced that they will return to some of their most barbaric practices after already restricting the rights of women, children, and minorities since seizing control of the country.
All this, of course, comes after President Biden and others in his administration insisted that the United States could rely on the Taliban to allow safe passage for Americans and Afghan allies trying to leave Afghanistan. "Businesslike and professional" are just two of the inexplicable words the Biden administration has used to describe the savage terrorists.
Taliban founder Mullah Nooruddin Turabi gave an interview to The Associated Press recently in which he outlined the new government's "justice" system aimed at keeping crime from rising in the uncertain environment.
In the past, before the United States and its allies arrived in Afghanistan most recently twenty years ago, the violent sentences and executions would be carried out in public venues, including Kabul's Ghazi stadium. The arena, built in the 1920s, has been used for a surreal array of events. In the 1940s, it saw soccer matches between Afghanistan and Iran. Duke Ellington played a show there in 1963. By the 1990s it was used by the Taliban for public executions. During the United States' presence, the arena's field was rebuilt and is eligible for FIFA certification. Now that the Taliban is back in control, it may once again be used for public punishment.
"Everyone criticized us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments," the Taliban's Turabi told The AP. "No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Quran," he added defending the Taliban's savage reputation. "We had complete safety in every part of the country," said Turabi of the Taliban's bloody rule in the 1990s.
As The AP reports, less-violent sentences doled out by the Taliban have already restarted:
In recent days in Kabul, Taliban fighters have revived a punishment they commonly used in the past — public shaming of men accused of small-time theft.
On at least two occasions in the last week, Kabul men have been packed into the back of a pickup truck, their hands tied, and were paraded around to humiliate them. In one case, their faces were painted to identify them as thieves. In the other, stale bread was hung from their necks or stuffed in their mouth. It wasn’t immediately clear what their crimes were.
As for their laws and punishments which Turabi insists are not to be criticized, he said that "cutting off of hands is very necessary for security," but that the new Taliban government hadn't yet decided whether to carry out the punishments in public as they have in the past but pledged they will "develop a policy" to handle brutal punishments for actions they deem to be crimes. If that's what the Taliban is admitting publicly, there's surely worse happening that's so far gone unpublicized.
The Biden administration has insisted that it's up to the Taliban to choose how they want to lead and have called on their new government to inclusive and tolerant, two things the Taliban are not known for and seem entirely unlikely to pursue now.
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