'Please stop': Taliban flog girl, 17, as she begs for mercy in 'honour' punishment

By Debra Killalea
Last updated at 12:16 PM on 03rd April 2009

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This is the chilling moment a 17-year-old Pakistani girl is punished in a horrific flogging by Taliban militants for being seen with a man who is not her husband.

Mobile phone footage shows the girl begging for mercy as she receives 37 lashes at the hands of her brother while two others hold her down.

'Please stop it,' she begs but the men completely disregard her desperate pleas and pathetic attempts to defend herself.

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW

The girl, 17, is held down by two men as a third raises a whip to flog her

The footage ends when the injured girl is dragged away into a nearby building.

Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan claimed responsibility for the flogging in today's Guardian, which obtained footage of the shocking act.

He said it was the Taliban's right to thrash women and that the girl was being punished for coming out of her house with another man who was not her husband.

But some claim the commander ordered the flogging to get revenge after the girl refused to accept a marriage proposal.

The man, believed to be the girl's brother, brings the whip down as she tries in vain to protect herself

Pashtun documentary maker Samar Minallah, who lived in Swat for two years in the late 1990s, handed the footage to the media.

The footage has sparked alarm across Pakistan and the west, which fears the Taliban is seeking to extend its influence across the region.

The girl in the video, named as Chaand, was punished in Matta in the Swat Valley.

She did not receive a trial and was punished according to the suspicions of one neighbour.

Ms Minallah said the incident had taken place within the last 10 days, following the signing of a peace deal between the provincial government and militants which saw them gain control of the valley's judicial system.

He gets ready to raise his whip again as the two men continue to hold her down

She said the video is being circulated because the Taliban wanted people to see it.

'They want to give the message that this is taking place after the peace deal because this is something they ideologically believe in,' she said.

Journalists and human rights workers have confirmed the video was recent, but could not say exactly when it was taken.

Human rights officials also claim that the Taliban have committed many atrocities since the peace deal was signed with officials settling disputes 'according to their whims.'

Mingora, the largest city in Swat district, has been under a mixture of traditional and Islamic law since the peace deal was signed on February 15.

Although the Taliban do not control the courts, they continue to carry out punishments in some regional areas.

The punishment is not the first to be dished out since the peace deal was signed with some sources claiming women have been whipped for harmless activities such as shopping.

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