Free Republic

The Taliban returned to power last year - but have since failed to live up to their promises when it comes to women's rights.Large crowds gathered in Afghanistan to watch the first public flogging gathered at a football stadium in the country since the Taliban were ousted more than two decades ago. In scenes described by one commentator as “just history repeating itself”, three women and nine men were beaten in front of hundreds of spectators at the orders of the religious extremist organisation, which returned to power in August. The office of the governor of Logar province, south of...

JIZAN, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- A Saudi Arabian court handed down a 120-lash sentence to a man who was simultaneously married to six women -- two more than the legal limit. The man, whose name was not released, told the Jizan province court he did not know he was violating Shariah, Islamic law, by having more than four wives at the same time, the BBC reported Friday. The defendant, a member of the Saudi Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a religious police force, was also ordered to read two chapters of the Koran...