The 22-year-old Takhar woman, Soraya, who was beaten in public by local men in Takhar's Chah Ab district - following a kangaroo court ruling – on Monday called on government to ensure justice is served.  

She said after she was beaten in public, she spent a few days under house arrest. 

Soraya said her husband’s family was behind the incident.  

"I don't know why they did this to me. They said I was theirs and they could do it even if I was innocent, to make others see it as a warning."

Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) meanwhile said local officials in the district who failed to prevent this from happening or take action against the men who carried out the illegal flogging were ultimately responsible for the incident.  

AIHRC said the officials had been negligent and should be held accountable. 

The head of the women’s rights department at AIHRC, Latifa Sultani, said the lack of awareness about religion, human rights values, and officials not adhering to human rights laws were the main reason for the increase in violence against women in the country. 

“The lack of political will to prosecute people who violate the law and perpetrators who commit acts of violence against women has provided a situation where a number of people, who see themselves as representatives of Allah on earth, allow themselves to commit such things,” said Sultani. 

Meanwhile a number of senators said government is not aware of many such cases in some parts of the country. 

“There are cases where women are killed and buried, but government does not ask about it,” Paktia senator Fawzia Sadaat Samkanai said. 

Although AIHRC said local officials failed to prevent the Soraya incident, the interior ministry says they have now arrested seven people in connection with the case. The MoI also stated that officials found to be negligent will also be prosecuted.  

“All those who neglected to do their jobs will be punished based on the law,” interior ministry’s deputy spokesman Nusrat Rahimi said. 

The public flogging of the woman reportedly took place almost two months ago but a video of the incident was only leaked on social media last week.

The incident caused an outcry and a task team was immediately sent to the province to investigate the matter. Soraya has also since been taken to a place of safety.

Sources said the woman was beaten in November but that some people wanted to keep it secret. 

Although such kangaroo courts are not unusual in insecure areas in Afghanistan, the public lashing of a woman in one of Takhar’s secure districts has been sharply criticized by people and analysts. 

Critics said local officials should be held accountable for not having prevented the incident and for not having taken action against those responsible for the incident.  

“Those people who do not believe in human rights issues and do not respect human rights values, they should be pulled out of the security forces,” said Naeem Nazari,the head of the Afghan Civil Society Human Rights Network. A number of religious scholars meanwhile said the incident is against Islam and that Islam does not allow such action. 

“What they have done is prohibited in Islam,” the head of Kabul’s Ulema Council Mawlawi Abdul Basir Haqqani said.