KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban publicly flogged 20 people, including four women, across several provinces over the past two days, the group’s supreme court announced, amid an increase in corporal punishments.
In a statement, the court said two people were publicly flogged in central Bamyan province on Thursday after being convicted of theft. Each received 39 lashes and was sentenced to one year in prison.
In northern Balkh province, a woman was publicly flogged 35 times on Thursday for an illicit relationship, in front of local authorities and the public. The previous day, six people, including one woman, were lashed 39 times each for adultery and selling alcohol, the court added.
In Takhar province, six individuals, including one woman, were publicly flogged for illicit relationships and gambling. Four received 25 lashes each, while two others were lashed 39 times and sentenced to one to five years in prison.
Three people in Ashkashom district of Badakhshan province were flogged 39 times each on Wednesday for transporting and selling alcohol and sentenced to two years in prison. In Zabul province, two people, including a woman, were flogged 39 times after being accused of running away from home and sentenced to five years in prison.
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.
The Taliban have also publicly executed at least 12 people for murder since 2021.
The UN and international rights groups have 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.
