KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban have publicly flogged a man and a woman in northern Takhar province over alleged “illicit relationship and running away from home,” the group’s supreme court announced.
In a statement, the court said the punishments were carried out on Sunday in Takhar’s Dorqad district, with each individual receiving 25 lashes and a one-year prison sentence in a ruling approved by the Taliban’s highest judicial authority.
The punishment is the latest in a series of public corporal punishments carried out by the Taliban, which has intensified in recent months. Over the past years, hundreds of people in Afghanistan have been publicly flogged under the group’s strict interpretation of Sharia law.
A recent United Nations report recorded at least 215 cases of public corporal punishment in Afghanistan between August 1 and October 31, including 42 women, two girls, and one boy. Allegations against those punished also included same-sex relations, alcohol consumption, and gambling.
Human rights groups and UN experts have condemned the punishments as “cruel, inhuman, and degrading,” urging the Taliban to end public floggings. The Taliban, however, defend the practice as the enforcement of Islamic law and reject criticism as interference in implementing Sharia.
