Taliban publicly flogged 36 people in the southeastern province of Khost on Monday on charges including drug offences and “immoral acts”, marking the highest number of public floggings carried out in a single day in one province since they returned to power.
In a separate statement, the Taliban-run Supreme Court said one more person was publicly flogged in Kabul on charges of adultery.
According to the court statements, those punished in Khost received between 10 and 39 lashes and were also sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to two years. The statement said the punishments were carried out after approval by the Supreme Court.
Data compiled by Amu TV from Taliban court announcements show that at least 140 people were publicly flogged across 17 provinces during the Afghan month of Jadi (Dec. 22–Jan. 20). Eight women were among those punished, with most floggings carried out in public.
Residents in provinces including Parwan, Kunar, Paktia, Herat, Paktika, Maidan Wardak, Badakhshan, Balkh, Kabul, Ghazni, Kunduz, Faryab, Baghlan, Nangarhar, Takhar, Uruzgan and Khost witnessed public floggings during that period, the data showed.
The highest number of cases were reported in Kunar, Kabul, Parwan, Nangarhar and Herat, where 46 people were publicly flogged during the month.
Taliban have imposed corporal punishment for offences including drug use and trafficking, alcohol consumption, theft, extramarital relations and violations of privacy. Court statements frequently refer to the allegations as “charges”.
Some legal experts say public corporal punishment violates fundamental legal principles and Islamic jurisprudence.
The United Nations has repeatedly called on the Taliban to immediately halt public corporal punishment, describing it as inhuman and degrading. The Taliban have rejected those calls and have expanded such punishments in recent months.
