KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban Court of Appeals in Balkh has announced the public flogging of two men in the district of “Zari.”
The court, in a statement, said that these individuals were publicly flogged today (Wednesday, March 25) on charges of “illicit relations” and “abducting a woman from her home.”
According to the Taliban Court of Appeals’ statement, each of these individuals received 39 lashes.
Since regaining control of Afghanistan, the Taliban have repeatedly flogged accused individuals in public and have also executed 12 people in the presence of hundreds of spectators.
International human rights organizations consider executions and corporal punishment of accused individuals to be contrary to international law and human dignity, and have called for their cessation.
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.
