KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban’s Supreme Court has announced that 21 people were publicly flogged in Kabul, according to a statement released by the court.
The court said the punishments were carried out on Sunday (March 15), after the individuals were accused of buying, selling, and trafficking narcotic substances, including intoxicating tablets, crystal meth, heroin, opium, alcoholic drinks, and hashish.
According to the statement, the individuals received between 10 and 39 lashes each. In addition to the flogging, they were sentenced to prison terms ranging from seven months to four years and three months.
Since returning to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have repeatedly carried out public corporal punishments against people accused of various crimes. The group has also executed at least 12 individuals in public, in the presence of hundreds of spectators.
International human rights organizations have condemned such punishments, saying that executions and corporal punishment violate international law and human dignity, and have called for them to be stopped.
Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban have increasingly carried out public corporal punishments, with sentences regularly announced by the supreme court.
According to the latest report by the UN Secretary-General, at least 316 people, including 30 women, four boys, and one girl, were publicly flogged between Nov. 1, 2025, and Jan. 31, 2026. UN experts reported that more than 1,100 people, including 170 women, were publicly flogged in 2025, nearly double the number in 2024 and the highest since the Taliban returned to power.
A group of UN experts recently condemned the practice, saying that the Taliban are increasingly using public floggings to instill fear, in violation of international human rights law.
The UN and international rights groups have consistently condemned these punishments as degrading and cruel, urging the Taliban to halt the practices and comply with international law. Taliban authorities defend them as based on their interpretation of Islamic law and necessary to maintain social order, rejecting international criticism as interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.
