The last major area remaining outside of the Taliban's control is the Panjshir Valley in the north, where Masood's Tajik troops continue to launch attacks against Taliban positions north of Kabul. There are no democratic processes in Afghanistan. The Taliban, whose regime is recognized by only three foreign governments, control 90 percent of the country. An inner circle of clerics issues strictly enforced decrees to regulate social affairs. The judiciary consists of tribunals in which clerics with little legal training issue rulings based on Pashtun customs and the Taliban's interpretation of Shari'a law.
Proceedings are brief, and defendants lack the right to legal counsel, due process, and appeal.
Sentences are often carried out in public stadiums. Families of murder victims have the option of executing court-imposed death sentences or granting clemency. Victims' relatives have killed murderers on several occasions, and authorities have bulldozed alleged sodomists under walls, stoned adulterers to death, and amputated the hands of thieves. Religious police have publicly beaten and otherwise humiliated hundreds of women for violating Taliban dress codes, which include wearing the burqa, a one-piece garment that covers the entire body. Soldiers, militiamen, and renegades abduct and rape scores of women each year.