Countries that follow Sharia law

The word "Sharia" translates to "the way" which refers to Islam's legal system. Sharia is a wide-ranging body of moral and ethical principles derived from the Quran and from the sayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad.

Under Sharia law, all human actions are regulated. All actions are categorised as obligatory, recommended, disliked, or permitted. Obligatory actions are mandatory. Forbidden actions, on the contrary, should not be performed in any regard. Recommended actions are actions that should be performed but aren't necessarily required. Disliked actions are looked down upon but aren't expressly forbidden. Most actions are categorised as permitted, which means that they are not encouraged or discouraged. Sharia law in applicable to all aspects of life, including public behavior, personal behavior, and even personal beliefs.

In the first press briefing after taking power, a Taliban spokesman said issues such as the media and women's rights would be respected "within the framework of Islamic law", but the group has not yet provided any details or guidelines that will elucidate what that will mean in practice.

The Taliban have been known and feared for their strict interpretation of Sharia, including punishments such as public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers.

Countries which follow extreme sharia law include:

Saudi Arabia

All the Saudi law are based on sharia and until fairly recently it was common for extreme Hudud punishments to be carried out in public. Hudud is the part of sharia law concerning the trial and punishment of the most serious crimes, including adultery, theft, and murder, prescribing penalties such as flagellation, amputation, and beheading.

Homosexual acts are strictly prohibited in execution in this country, although usually the penalty is limited to flogging and imprisonment. Beheadings and amputations by sword were usually carried out on Fridays, before midday prayers. In extreme cases, the condemned person is sometimes crucified after execution.

Iraq

Iraq's legal system is based on French civil law as well as Sunni and Jafari (Shi'ite) interpretations of Sharia.

Article 41 of the constitution allows for personal status matters (such as marriage, divorce and inheritance) to be governed by the rules of each religious group.

Iran

The Islamic Republic of Iran was founded after the 1979 overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty by the Islamic Revolution, and its legal code is based on Islamic law or sharia, although many aspects of civil law have been retained, and it is integrated into a civil law legal system.

However, the Shiite state does employ a range of sharia punishments, with Amnesty International criticizing it in 2017 for its "persistent use of cruel and inhuman punishments, including floggings, amputations and forced blinding."

Malaysia

Malaysia has a dual-track legal system comprised of civil courts running in parallel with Islamic Sharia courts where Muslim Malays can be tried on religious and moral charges.

Sharia is imposed only on Muslims and deals with moral and family matters. Non-Muslims are required to follow secular laws that deal with the same matters.

Brunei

The tiny and immensely rich absolute monarchy drew international outrage when it became the first country in Southeast Asia to impose extreme sharia in 2019.

Brunei's Sultan later said some measures would not be enforced, including death by stoning for gay sex and adultery.

Indonesia

Indonesia's conservative Aceh region is the only province in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country to have Islamic law. Public flogging is common for gambling, drinking alcohol, adultery and having gay sex.

But the central government refuses to sanction beheading. Aceh adopted religious law after it was granted autonomy in 2001 in a bid by Jakarta to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.

Sudan

Sudan adopted sharia law in 1983 but since then has implemented it patchily.

Death by stoning remains on the statute books but has not been implemented in decades, although activists claim hundreds of women are flogged every year for "immoral behaviour".

Pakistan

Military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq introduced the widely-criticised Hudood Ordinances in 1979 as part of his sweeping Islamisation of Pakistan.

In Pakistan, Sharia courts implementing the laws run parallel to the British-based penal code but are rarely used. They cover adultery, false accusations in court, property crimes and prohibition of drugs and alcohol.

Nigeria

Some 12 of Nigeria's 36 states -- all in the north -- apply sharia to criminal cases.

Courts can order amputations, although few have ever been carried out.

Qatar

Flogging is still on the statute books as a punishment for Muslims who drink alcohol or have illicit sexual relations, but is rarely used. The punishment for adultery is technically 100 lashes.

Adultery is also punishable by death when it involves a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim man. But in reality, capital punishment is only used in very rare murder cases when the victim's family do not show mercy.

The Islamic State

Before its "caliphate" was crushed in 2019, the Islamic State group applied a fiercely brutal form of sharia in the parts of Syria and Iraq it controlled.

It ran its own courts, carried out public beheadings, stonings and amputations, pushing men suspected of being gay from the top of tall buildings.