Huddled on the ground before a man in a turban
Heather Barr at Human Rights Watch reports:
It’s a scene we associate with the Taliban. A woman covered head to toe in a flowing veil, huddled on the ground before a man in a turban. His right arm is raised, in motion, holding a lash, a second away from bringing it down on her. An audience of men – only men – sit in a circle around them. They have chairs – a nod to their comfort while they watch what may be intended as a cautionary lesson, or spectacle.
This is not the Taliban. This photo emerged on September 1, and reportedly shows the lashing of a woman named Zarmina, 22, who was arrested with a man named Ahmad, 21, several weeks ago in Afghanistan’s Ghor province. The two were accused of zina, or sex outside of marriage, which under Afghan law is a crime carrying a sentence of 5 to 15 years in prison. The two were sentenced to 100 lashes each by a court – not a Taliban tribunal, not a convening of elders, but a formal court of law…
The men watching do look very relaxed and comfortable, as if at a pleasant afternoon concert.
Sex between two consenting adults should never be a crime. But even more horrifyingly, a conviction for zina in Afghanistan is often based on the shakiest of evidence. When I interviewed dozens of women and girls imprisoned for zina and reviewed their cases, I learned that judges hand down harsh sentences based on women having left the home without permission, having been alone in the presence of a man who is not a relative, on malicious statements from angry and abusive husbands and fathers, and on abusive “virginity exams” – vaginal examinations that are medically meaningless.
Well, maybe, but where there’s smoke there’s fire, you know.
To me they look….. what’s the word?….. Proprietorial? They’re there to do their duty. It’s what you do, watching women be beaten for not committing a crime. It wouldn’t be a proper beating if they weren’t there to watch it and look serious. If nobody turned up, they might stop assaulting women on a flimsy pretext, can’t have that.
Who are these men? How do they have time to attend a public beating in the middle of the day? It’s almost as though everyone agrees that keeping women in their place is the most important thing you can possibly do.
Except for that one guy in the middle, he’s definitely there to enjoy himself.
And where did the fucking chairs come from? What is this place? What is it used for when there’s not an obscene spectacle taking place? Someone must have carried the chairs from wherever they were to where they are in the picture and then put them away again. Are the chairs there only for this purpose? Is there a special place where the beating chairs are kept?
I usually find that mundane thoughts like this make the horror worse, if possible. Someone has figured out the logistics of people watching beatings. They’ve made it just another part of everyday life. Do you expect the people watching a vicious beating to stand up? You monster. You barbarian.
OK, I’m done talking about chairs now.
The one on the right end has a swivel chair. Did he roll it all the way from his office?