KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban publicly flogged 30 people, including women, in seven provinces over the past four days, the group’s supreme court announced, amid the group’s intensified use of corporal punishment.
In multiple statements, the court said the punishments were carried out in Badakhshan, Maidan Wardak, Paktika, Parwan, Herat, Paktia, and Kunar provinces since Monday, January 5.
The court said the individuals were convicted of crimes including adultery, illicit relationships, sodomy, theft, drug and alcohol offenses, and counterfeiting currency. Sentences included up to 39 lashes and prison terms of up to 12 years.
After returning to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, declared his intention to enforce a strict interpretation of Sharia law, including public executions, stonings, floggings, and amputations for theft.
Since then, thousands across Afghanistan, including women, children, and LGBTQ+ individuals, have been publicly flogged or subjected to amputations for crimes such as theft, adultery, and sodomy. The practice has intensified in recent months, with the UN recording at least 215 cases of public corporal punishment between August 1 and October 31 last year, including 42 women, two girls, and one boy.
The regime has also executed at least 11 people convicted of murder in public across the country over the past three years.
International human rights groups and the UN have condemned the Taliban’s use of corporal punishment and public executions, citing violations of international human rights law and calling for an immediate end to the practices. The Taliban, however, continue to defend the punishments, saying they are enforcing Sharia law in Afghanistan.
