Taliban publicly flogged at least 456 people, including 60 women, across the country in solar year 1403 (March 2024 to March 2025), according to statistics from the Taliban’s Supreme Court. The punishments were carried out in 26 provinces, including Kabul and Kandahar.
The data also reveals that in the final three months of the year alone, over 200 people, including 30 women, were publicly whipped in 14 provinces.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have flogged at least 798 individuals, including 140 women, according to the group’s judicial records.
In addition to floggings, the Taliban’s Supreme Court has also issued and carried out harsher punishments, including, 176 executions under the Islamic law of Qisas (retribution in kind), 37 stoning sentences for alleged adultery, and 4 instances of “wall-collapse punishment,” an execution method historically used for those accused of sodomy.
On November 14, 2024, the Taliban publicly executed an individual in Paktia province, with senior officials in attendance.
The provinces where floggings were most frequent included Faryab, Paktia, Khost, Helmand, Jowzjan, Uruzgan, Farah, Ghazni, Kabul, Parwan, Kandahar, Paktika, Bamyan, and Ghor.
Yearly breakdown of public floggings
2022 (1401) – 298 people flogged, including 74 women
2023 (1402) – 44 people flogged, including 6 women
2024 (1403) – Over 456 people flogged, including 60 women
The Taliban’s harsh punishments have sparked public condemnation, with many calling on the international community to take action.
“The Taliban are becoming more brutal with each passing day. Sports stadiums have been turned into arenas for public floggings of men and women. The world must not remain silent in the face of this oppression,” a Kabul resident told Amu.
Another resident from Badghis expressed similar concerns: “Last year, the Taliban flogged hundreds of men and women, and this practice continues. Since they came to power, we have lost our freedom, and they torture people under various pretexts.”
Beyond corporal punishment, the Taliban have imposed some of their harshest restrictions yet, particularly on women and girls. Over the past year, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has issued five additional decrees and one restrictive order, all of which have further curtailed women’s rights.
The Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has been at the center of enforcing these decrees, restricting women from education, employment, and basic freedoms, drawing widespread international condemnation.
