Stoning for adulterers may become legal again in Afghanistan

Source: NBC News

Death by stoning for convicted adulterers is being written into Afghan law, a senior official said on Monday, the latest sign that human rights won at great cost since the Taliban were ousted in 2001 are rolling back as foreign troops withdraw.

"We are working on the draft of a sharia penal code where the punishment for adultery, if there are four eyewitnesses, is stoning," said Rohullah Qarizada, who is part of the sharia Islamic law committee working on the draft and head of the Afghan Independent Bar Association.

Billions have been invested on promoting human rights in Afghanistan over more than 12 years of war and donors fear that hard won progress, particularly for women, may be eroding.

Human Rights Watch reports that they saw a draft provision of the law which states that if a court finds that a couple engaged in sexual intercourse outside of legal marriage, both the man and the woman would be sentenced to “stoning to death if the adulterer or adulteress is married.” And if the “adulterer or adulteress is unmarried” the sentence shall be “whipping 100 lashes.”

Read more: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/25/21609525-stoning-for-adulterers-may-become-legal-again-in-afghanistan?lite