KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban Supreme Court announced the public flogging of four people, including two women, on charges of “illicit relationship” in northern Balkh province.
In a statement, the court said the four individuals were each lashed between 20 and 39 times in front of local authorities and residents on Sunday and Tuesday. The punishment was carried out after approval by the group’s highest judicial body.
Public floggings have become increasingly common across Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Since regaining power in August 2021, the group has carried out hundreds of lashings for a range of offenses, including adultery, sodomy, theft, and illicit relationships.
In addition to floggings, the Taliban have resumed public executions. At least 11 people convicted of murder have been executed in recent years in sports stadiums, where thousands of spectators were brought to witness the killings.
The UN, international rights bodies, and human rights defenders continue to denounce public floggings and executions as “inhuman, degrading and brutal,” urging the Taliban to cease such practices. They also question the fairness of Taliban-run courts, citing the absence of defense lawyers, limited transparency, and reports of coerced confessions
Taliban officials defend the punishments, saying they are implementing sharia law and accuse critics of lacking understanding of Islamic principles or holding what they describe as anti-Islam views.
