Afghanistan - December 2022

The Taliban publicly executed a man in the Afghan city of Farah on 7 December, the first such execution since it returned to power in August 2021. United Nations officials condemned the execution as well as the Taliban’s reinstatement of public floggings, more than 100 of which have reportedly been carried out since 18 November 2022.

Sources: Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights

In two decrees in late December, the Taliban banned women from attending university and working at NGOs, drawing condemnation domestically and from the international community. The former decree risks further deterioration between the Taliban and western governments, which had made female education a core condition of official recognition. The latter risks a humanitarian crisis, as the international and local NGOs on which millions of Afghans depend have long held that restrictions on their thousands of local and international female staff were non-negotiable, and that the decree may force them to suspend operations.

Sources: British Broadcasting Corporation, Financial Times