Kabul: one of the founders of Taliban And the main proponent of the harsh interpretation of Islamic law when he last ruled Afghanistan, said the hard-line movement would once again carry out executions and amputation of hands, though perhaps not publicly.
Mulla Nooruddin Turabi In the past he dismissed outrage over Taliban executions, which sometimes took place in front of a crowd in a stadium, and warned the world against interfering with Afghanistan’s new rulers.
“Everyone criticized us for the punishment in the stadium, but we never said anything about their laws and their punishment,” Turabi told the Associated Press in Kabul. “No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our own laws Quran”
Ever since the Taliban captured Kabul on August 15 and took over the country, Afghans and the world have been watching whether they will rebuild their harsh regime of the late 1990s. Turabi’s comments pointed to how the group’s leaders are embroiled in a deeply conservative, rigid worldview, even as they are acknowledging technological changes such as video and mobile phones.
Turabi, now in his early 60s, was minister of justice during the previous Taliban regime and head of the prevention of propaganda and vice of so-called virtue – effectively, the religious police.
At the time, the world condemned the Taliban’s punishment, which took place in Kabul’s sports stadium or on the grounds of the huge Idgah mosque, often attended by hundreds of Afghan men.
Convicted killers were usually executed with a single shot to the head, carried out by the victim’s family, who had the option of accepting “blood money” and letting the offender live. For convicted thieves, the punishment was the amputation of an arm. One arm and one leg of highway robbery convicts were amputated.
Trials and convictions were rarely made public and the judiciary was valued in favor of Islamic clerics whose knowledge of the law was limited to religious injunctions.
Turabi said this time judges – including women – would decide the cases, but that the foundation of Afghanistan’s laws would be the Quran. He said the same punishment would be reinstated.
“Cutting hands is very necessary for safety,” he said, adding that it was a deterrent effect. He said the cabinet is studying whether to punish publicly and “will develop a policy.”
In recent days in Kabul, Taliban fighters have revived a punishment they commonly used in the past – the public embarrassment of men accused of small-time theft. On at least two occasions in the past week, people in Kabul have been packed into the back of a pickup truck, their hands tied, and driven around to humiliate them. In one case, their faces were painted to identify them as thieves. In the second, stale bread was hung from his neck or kept in his mouth. It was not immediately clear what their crimes were.
Wearing a white turban and a bushy white beard, Stocky Turabi was limping a bit on his prosthetic leg. He lost a leg and an eye during a fight with Soviet soldiers in the 1980s.
Under the new Taliban government, he is in charge of prisons. He is among several Taliban leaders, including members of the all-male interim cabinet, who are on a United Nations ban list.
During the previous Taliban regime, he was one of the most brutal and uncompromising of the group. When the Taliban took power in 1996, one of its first acts was to yell at a female journalist, demanding that she leave a room for men, and then deliver a powerful slap in the face to the protesting man.
Turabi was notorious for tearing music tapes off cars, stringing destroyed cassettes hundreds of meters into trees and signposts. He demanded men to wear turbans in all government offices and his servants regularly beat up men whose beards had been cut off. The game was banned, and Turabi’s army forced the men to offer prayers at the mosque five times daily.
In this week’s interview with the AP, Turabi spoke to a female journalist.
“We have changed from the past,” he said.
He said the Taliban would now allow television, mobile phones, photos and videos “because this is what the people need, and we are serious about it.” He suggested that the Taliban see the media as a way to spread their message. “Now we know we can reach millions instead of just reaching hundreds,” he said. He said that if the punishment is made public, people can be allowed to make videos or take photographs to spread the deterrent effect.
The US and its allies are trying to use the threat of isolation and the economic damage it causes to pressure the Taliban to soften their rule and allow other factions, minorities and women into power.
But Turabi dismissed criticism of the previous Taliban regime, saying it had been successful in bringing stability. About the late 1990s, he said, “we had full security in every part of the country.”
Even as residents of Kabul express fear over their new Taliban rulers, some acknowledge that the capital has only become safe in the past month. Before the Taliban takeover, gangs of thieves roamed the streets, and relentless crime drove most people off the streets after dark.
“It’s not a good thing to see these people being embarrassed in public, but it deters criminals because when people see it, they think ‘I don’t want it to be me,'” aman, a store owner in the center of Kabul. He asked to be recognized by only one name.
Another shopkeeper said it was a violation of human rights but he is also happy that he can open his shop after dark.
Mulla Nooruddin Turabi In the past he dismissed outrage over Taliban executions, which sometimes took place in front of a crowd in a stadium, and warned the world against interfering with Afghanistan’s new rulers.
“Everyone criticized us for the punishment in the stadium, but we never said anything about their laws and their punishment,” Turabi told the Associated Press in Kabul. “No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our own laws Quran”
Ever since the Taliban captured Kabul on August 15 and took over the country, Afghans and the world have been watching whether they will rebuild their harsh regime of the late 1990s. Turabi’s comments pointed to how the group’s leaders are embroiled in a deeply conservative, rigid worldview, even as they are acknowledging technological changes such as video and mobile phones.
Turabi, now in his early 60s, was minister of justice during the previous Taliban regime and head of the prevention of propaganda and vice of so-called virtue – effectively, the religious police.
At the time, the world condemned the Taliban’s punishment, which took place in Kabul’s sports stadium or on the grounds of the huge Idgah mosque, often attended by hundreds of Afghan men.
Convicted killers were usually executed with a single shot to the head, carried out by the victim’s family, who had the option of accepting “blood money” and letting the offender live. For convicted thieves, the punishment was the amputation of an arm. One arm and one leg of highway robbery convicts were amputated.
Trials and convictions were rarely made public and the judiciary was valued in favor of Islamic clerics whose knowledge of the law was limited to religious injunctions.
Turabi said this time judges – including women – would decide the cases, but that the foundation of Afghanistan’s laws would be the Quran. He said the same punishment would be reinstated.
“Cutting hands is very necessary for safety,” he said, adding that it was a deterrent effect. He said the cabinet is studying whether to punish publicly and “will develop a policy.”
In recent days in Kabul, Taliban fighters have revived a punishment they commonly used in the past – the public embarrassment of men accused of small-time theft. On at least two occasions in the past week, people in Kabul have been packed into the back of a pickup truck, their hands tied, and driven around to humiliate them. In one case, their faces were painted to identify them as thieves. In the second, stale bread was hung from his neck or kept in his mouth. It was not immediately clear what their crimes were.
Wearing a white turban and a bushy white beard, Stocky Turabi was limping a bit on his prosthetic leg. He lost a leg and an eye during a fight with Soviet soldiers in the 1980s.
Under the new Taliban government, he is in charge of prisons. He is among several Taliban leaders, including members of the all-male interim cabinet, who are on a United Nations ban list.
During the previous Taliban regime, he was one of the most brutal and uncompromising of the group. When the Taliban took power in 1996, one of its first acts was to yell at a female journalist, demanding that she leave a room for men, and then deliver a powerful slap in the face to the protesting man.
Turabi was notorious for tearing music tapes off cars, stringing destroyed cassettes hundreds of meters into trees and signposts. He demanded men to wear turbans in all government offices and his servants regularly beat up men whose beards had been cut off. The game was banned, and Turabi’s army forced the men to offer prayers at the mosque five times daily.
In this week’s interview with the AP, Turabi spoke to a female journalist.
“We have changed from the past,” he said.
He said the Taliban would now allow television, mobile phones, photos and videos “because this is what the people need, and we are serious about it.” He suggested that the Taliban see the media as a way to spread their message. “Now we know we can reach millions instead of just reaching hundreds,” he said. He said that if the punishment is made public, people can be allowed to make videos or take photographs to spread the deterrent effect.
The US and its allies are trying to use the threat of isolation and the economic damage it causes to pressure the Taliban to soften their rule and allow other factions, minorities and women into power.
But Turabi dismissed criticism of the previous Taliban regime, saying it had been successful in bringing stability. About the late 1990s, he said, “we had full security in every part of the country.”
Even as residents of Kabul express fear over their new Taliban rulers, some acknowledge that the capital has only become safe in the past month. Before the Taliban takeover, gangs of thieves roamed the streets, and relentless crime drove most people off the streets after dark.
“It’s not a good thing to see these people being embarrassed in public, but it deters criminals because when people see it, they think ‘I don’t want it to be me,'” aman, a store owner in the center of Kabul. He asked to be recognized by only one name.
Another shopkeeper said it was a violation of human rights but he is also happy that he can open his shop after dark.
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