KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban’s Supreme Court has announced the public flogging of nine people, including three women, in Ghazni and Takhar provinces.
According to the statement, four men and one woman were publicly whipped on February 17 in Jaghori district of Ghazni. They were accused of “sodomy,” “theft,” and “running away from home.”
The Taliban’s primary court in Jaghori sentenced them to prison terms ranging from one and a half to five years, along with 30 to 39 lashes.
In a separate statement, the Supreme Court reported that two men and two women were publicly flogged in Farkhar district of Takhar on charges of “adultery.” Three received sentences of one and a half years in prison and 39 lashes each, while the fourth was sentenced to five years in prison and 39 lashes.
This incident is part of a growing pattern of corporal punishment by the Taliban since they regained power in 2021.
In recent months, hundreds of people, including women and LGBTQ+ individuals, have been publicly flogged on charges the Taliban describes as “moral corruption.” Since early February, at least 27 individuals, including four women, have been flogged across Afghanistan.
A recent report to the UN Security Council by Secretary-General António Guterres documented the flogging of 108 individuals, including 26 women and a girl, over three months. The Taliban have also conducted at least six public executions for murder in recent years.
Human rights groups, the UN, and activists have strongly condemned the Taliban’s use of corporal punishment and executions, calling it a violation of basic human rights that instills fear among Afghans.
The Taliban defends its actions as enforcement of Sharia law and dismisses critics as either “misinterpreting” or “opposing Islam.”
