KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban has reportedly publicly flogged 27 individuals, including five women, in the provinces of Jowzjan, Kabul, Paktika, and Maidan Wardak since yesterday.
Local sources in northern Jowzjan province reported that the Taliban authorities flogged 22 individuals, including four women, today, November 5, in the capital city of Sheberghan, on charges of “illicit relationships” and “producing and selling drugs and alcohol.”
According to sources, these individuals received between 25 and 29 lashes each in a sports stadium in front of local residents and authorities. They were also sentenced to prison terms ranging from one month to one year.
In multiple statements today, the Taliban Supreme Court announced that a man and a woman were flogged in Kabul for “adultery,” while two men were flogged in Paktika and another man in Maidan Wardak for “sodomy.”
According to the statements, these individuals each received between 36 to 39 lashes and were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six months to two years.
Public punishments have been on the rise in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, ordered the return of Islamic sentences in November 2022.
The UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) recently documented 111 cases of corporal punishment from July to September, including the flogging of 15 women and one girl. Additionally, the extremist group has carried out public executions, with at least five individuals convicted of murder publicly executed in the past two years.
The Taliban’s executions and corporal punishments have drawn widespread outcry and calls from the UN and human rights groups to immediately end these practices for being in breach of human rights and international law.
The Taliban leaders, however, defend their criminal justice system, arguing that it is in line with their interpretation of Islamic law, and they reject criticism from the international community as interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.
