Taliban Flog 23 People, Including Three Women, in Four Provinces
The Taliban’s Supreme Court has announced that public flogging sentences were carried out on 23 individuals—comprising three women and 20 men—in the provinces of Takhar, Kunduz, Kabul, and Kunar.
On Thursday, May 29, the court issued several separate statements, reporting that the individuals were punished on charges including “adultery,” “sodomy,” “theft,” “use and sale of drugs,” “illicit relationships,” and “moral corruption.”
According to one statement, in the Chah Ab district of Takhar province, a woman and a man were publicly flogged and sentenced to one year and six months in prison and 30 lashes each for “adultery.”
Another statement reported that on Tuesday, May 27, a woman and a man in Kunduz province were publicly flogged for “adultery.” The primary court of Qala-e-Zal district sentenced both to three years of imprisonment and 39 lashes.
In a separate statement, three men in Kabul were sentenced on the same day to one to two years in prison and between 10 and 39 lashes for selling alcohol and narcotic tablets. The sentences were issued by the Primary Court for Counter-Narcotics.
According to a fourth statement, on Monday, May 26, the appellate court in Kunar province sentenced 16 men on charges of “sodomy,” “theft,” “drug use,” “illicit relationships,” and “moral corruption” to prison terms ranging from one to one and a half years, along with 10 to 39 lashes.
Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, public corporal punishment—particularly flogging—has become a common practice in their judicial system. These sentences are usually carried out in public, with dozens of men and women subjected to them so far.
Additionally, ten people have reportedly been executed in public based on Taliban court rulings.
These actions have repeatedly been condemned by international human rights organizations, which consider such punishments a violation of international law and human dignity. These organizations have consistently called for their immediate cessation.
