KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban’s Supreme Court has announced that 14 individuals, including one woman, were publicly flogged across four provinces of Afghanistan.
According to a statement released Thursday (June 5), the punishments were carried out in Kabul (9 individuals), Parwan (2), Khost (2), and Paktika (1).
In Kabul, the nine men were sentenced to six to seven months in prison and 10 to 20 lashes each for allegedly trafficking and selling hashish and narcotic tablets, including K and Zikap.
In Parwan, a man and a woman were convicted of “running away from home.” Each received four years in prison and 35 lashes.
In Khost, two individuals were sentenced to two years in prison and 35 to 39 lashes for drug-related offenses.
In Paktika, a man was sentenced to two years in prison and received 36 lashes for theft.
This incident marks the latest in a growing pattern of public corporal punishments since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Just this week, at least 47 individuals, including several women, have been flogged across various provinces.
The United Nations and human rights organizations have strongly condemned the practice, describing it as inhuman and a violation of international law. They have raised an alarm over the absence of fair trials and the lack of legal representation for the accused.
Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, said that public punishments have significantly increased in 2025, and reiterated that corporal punishment must end.
The Taliban defends the practice as an enforcement of Islamic Sharia law, accusing critics of misunderstanding or opposing Islam.
