Taliban have flogged 114 people in public across the country in the past month, including 20 women, according to figures compiled by Amu from the Taliban’s Supreme Court.
The data show the number of women flogged in Sunbula (August 22–September 22) was double the previous month. Overall, the total cases rose nearly fivefold, from 10 in the previous month to 50 in Sunbula.
The punishments were carried out in at least 15 provinces, with Kabul, Parwan and Takhar recording the highest numbers. Women were among those flogged in Ghor, Logar, Balkh, Laghman, Takhar, Badakhshan, Jawzjan and Baghlan, mostly on charges of “running away from home” or “moral corruption.”
In total, 114 people were flogged in Kabul, Ghazni, Baghlan, Faryab, Parwan, Paktia, Ghor, Logar, Jawzjan, Takhar, Balkh, Laghman, Badakhshan, Farah and Khost.
Human rights activists criticized the surge in corporal punishments. “The Taliban are increasing public floggings to instill fear and normalize brutality,” said Masouda Kohistani, a rights activist.
“Public punishments are aimed at strengthening control through fear, but they violate human dignity and fuel public resentment,” another activist, Humaira Ibrahim, said.
Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, told the Human Rights Council this month that 672 people have been flogged this year.
Taliban have defended public floggings as part of their enforcement of Sharia law.
