Taliban Stone Woman for Adultery

The Associated Press, May 1, 2000

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban religious rulers stoned a woman to death in northern Afghanistan on Monday after she was found guilty of committing adultery.

The woman, identified only as Suriya by Taliban-run Radio Shariat, was said to have confessed to adultery, a capital offense in this war-ravaged nation. The radio did not say what happened to the man involved. He was identified as Abdul Jabbar.

The stoning was carried out at a sports stadium in Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan before a crowd of several thousand spectators, according to the radio report.

In the 90 percent of Afghanistan that it rules, the Taliban religious army has imposed a harsh brand of Islamic law. Punishments are harsh and public.

The last execution of a woman in Taliban territory was last November, when a woman was shot three times by a Taliban soldier after she was found guilty of killing her abusive husband with an ax. She was the mother of seven children.

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