In the latest example of public punishments carried out by the Taliban, two men were forced to wear a chador, a full-length hijab traditionally worn by women as a form of public "humiliation". But other punishments meted out by the Taliban have been far more violent, including flagellations and public executions. While Afghan activists have documented dozens of public punishments since October 2022, video evidence of them is scarce – only two videos document these brutal tactics.
The footage shows two men standing in a Kabul square, standing on a platform high enough for any passerby to notice them. The men were accused of petty theft and a Taliban court decided to “humiliate” them as a “punishment” by dressing them up as women, in what the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security considers the worst country in the world to be a woman.
