KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban publicly flogged 45 people, including seven women, across Afghanistan over the past week, according to the group’s supreme court, amid a sharp rise in the use of corporal punishment.
The court said in a series of announcements released since Saturday that the punishments were carried out in 11 provinces, including Kabul, Ghazni, Kunduz, Zabul, Maidan Wardak, Nangarhar, Badghis, Paktia, Herat, Khost, and Bamyan.
The individuals were convicted on charges ranging from drug-related offences and theft to adultery, sodomy, illicit relationships, running away from home, and the production, sale, or trafficking of drugs and alcoholic beverages.
Each individual received between 10 and 39 lashes, along with prison sentences ranging from seven months to three years. The floggings were carried out in public after being approved by the Taliban’s highest judicial authority, the court said.
Such punishments are typically conducted in open spaces such as sports grounds or public squares, often in the presence of local officials, religious scholars, and residents. The Taliban does not publish the names, ages, or detailed identities of those punished.
Since regaining power in August 2021, the Taliban have systematically reinstated and expanded public punishments, including floggings and executions, as a core component of their justice system, based on their strict interpretation of Islamic law (Sharia). Hundreds of people, including women and children, have been subjected to these measures.
The United Nations and rights groups say the use of corporal punishment has increased significantly in recent years. UN experts, citing Taliban Supreme Court figures, reported that at least 1,110 people were flogged in 2025, including at least 170 women, nearly double the 567 people recorded in 2024.
In January 2026 alone, authorities reported the flogging of 147 men and 15 women, marking one of the highest monthly totals since the practice was reintroduced in late 2021.
The Taliban have also carried out at least 12 public executions for murder since returning to power.
The UN, Amnesty International, and other international rights organizations have repeatedly condemned the punishments as cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. They have called on the Taliban to immediately end public floggings and executions and to bring their judicial practices in line with international human rights standards.
Taliban authorities defend the punishments as fully consistent with their interpretation of Islamic law and say they are necessary to deter crime and maintain social order. They have rejected international criticism as biased against Islam and as interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.
