A group of young Afghans have said they were flogged by Taliban soldiers for the crime of wearing jeans.
In a post widely shared on Facebook, an Afghan youth said they were “walking with friends in Kabul,” when they encountered a group of Taliban soldiers who accused them of disrespecting Islam.
Two of the friends escaped, the youth said, but the others were beaten, whipped on their necks and threatened at gunpoint.
According to a local newspaper, Etilaatroz, the movement was still deciding on the dress code for men, but reports suggest the Taliban is unwilling to allow ‘westernised’ clothing that deviates from traditional ‘Afghan dress’.
The newspaper added that over the weekend, one of its journalists had also been beaten for not wearing ‘Afghan clothes’ such as full-body gowns, according to a report in the Telegraph.
Under the Taliban’s previous rule in the late 90s, men had to wear traditional robes while girls were forced to wear a burqa from the age of eight.
Meanwhile, recent footage has shown Taliban fighters attacking anyone carrying an Afghan national flag in at least a dozen incidents primarily in the capital Kabul.
It comes after human rights’ group, Amnesty International, revealed that Taliban fighters massacred nine ethnic Hazara men after taking control of the country’s Ghazni province last month.
A Taliban fighter was filmed hitting a young man with the tip of his rifle for playing music on his mobile phone.
The Kabul man was walking on a shopping street in Kabul when the Taliban accosted him, shouting, and hit his neck with a rifle, leaving him reeling in confusion.
The Kabul man is said to have broken the Taliban’s harsh sharia code by playing music.
After hitting the Kabul man, the Taliban militant lifted his rifle to hit him again before another armed Taliban member intervenes and allows the man to continue making his way along the street in the K?rte Naw district.
The video, obtained by Metro UK, shows the clampdown on people’s freedoms since the Taliban took over power in Afghanistan.
The British national, originally from Afghanistan, who supplied the footage, said: “The man was struck just for playing music on his phone.
“The Taliban are bringing in a lot of harsh restrictions, for example if you shave your beard you also risk being tortured and abused.
“While the British forces and the Americans are at the airport the Taliban are not enforcing a lot of the laws but when the international forces go they will apply to every single person.
“I am really scared for my family still in Afghanistan.”
Watch the video below.