Feature: Extra-judicial trials in post-Taliban Afghanistan see women's rights violated

A poor lady is seen screaming for help in an extra-judicial trial in Afghanistan's northern Saripul province among scores of villagers, but none of the onlookers rushed to rescue her for a crime she has not committed.

The shocking clip shot by a Xinhua stringer at the site of the incident showed a man badly beating a young girl with a stick in front of her father, on a charge of burglary.

According to locals, the gruesome episode began after a theft in the village of Balkhab district a few days earlier and a soothsayer accused the family of the hard up lady of being the thief.

To punish the burglar, the so-called villager elder arranged an extra-judicial trial and publicly punished the lady and his father.

It might be unbelievable in other parts of the world to trust fortune tellers and what many might pass off as mumbo jumbo, but in Afghanistan such customs still exist.

However, carrying out extra-judicial punishments in the Balkhab district of Saripul province has been widely condemned. "Executing extra-judicial punishment on one hand demonstrates government weakness and on the other, exposes the high rate of illiteracy, ignorance and barbarism in Afghanistan,"a student in Saripul province, Ahmad Hasan, told Xinhua.

Criticizing the brutal incident as a clear violation of human rights especially the women's rights, Hassan added that Afghanistan is a"bad place"for women to live.

Earlier, in March this year, in a worst case of violence against women, scores of people in Kabul after badly beating a 30- year-old woman named Farkhunda, burned her body, but none of the attackers has been publicly executed although dozens have been arrested. "Extra-judicial beatings and punishment of an innocent lady in the Balkhab district of Saripul province in front of the government's eyes has added to the pain of Afghans, as people have yet to forget the brutal murder of Farkhunda,"Mohammad Haroon told Xinhua.

Haroon also added that the walls of Shah-e-Doshamshira shrine, the place where Farkhunda was murdered, are still stained with Farkhunda's blood, another lady who was dishonored publicly in Saripul province.

Balkhab district is the safest place in Saripul province where the government has full control and the police have arrested five people in this case but have set them free, while the main accused Akhali is on bail, according to locals.

Abusing women's rights was common during the Taliban six-year reign, which collapsed under the U.S.-led military invasion in late 2001.

Taliban militants during their rule had closed down education centers for girls, confined women to their houses, stoned women to death on charges of adultery and didn't allow women to go out of their homes unless accompanied by close relatives.

The extremist group still executes women charged of adultery by stoning them to death in areas controlled by insurgents.

In post-Taliban Afghanistan, although women have been empowered to work as cabinet ministers, parliamentarians, artists and businesswomen,they are still suffering from, especially in rural areas where the government control is loose, forced marriage, underage marriage and giving"baad"or giving the hand of a girl forcibly by her parents to a rival side to settle a dispute between two families or tribes. "The culture of immunity and overlooking crimes committed by men against women in this male-dominated society is the main reason for women's rights being abused in Afghanistan,"Mohammad Nabi of the northern Balkh province observed. Endi