KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban have publicly flogged at least 72 people, including 14 women, across 10 provinces in the past 11 days, according to data compiled by Amu from the Taliban Supreme Court statements.
The punishments, carried out for alleged offenses such as theft and “running away from home,” mark a continuation of the Taliban’s escalating use of corporal punishment.
Human rights activists and Afghan citizens have condemned the floggings as cruel and inhumane, likening them to the Taliban’s harsh policies of the 1990s.
“The Taliban are using religion as a tool of oppression,” said Roqia Saei, a human rights activist. “Public floggings violate Islamic principles and fundamental human rights.”
Eyewitnesses report that sports stadiums have been turned into sites for public punishment, with men and women lashed before crowds.
“The Taliban’s brutality increases by the day,” said a Kabul resident. “They whip men and women for unknown reasons, just like they did in the past. The world must not stay silent.”
Another Kabul resident added, “They have turned sports fields into places of punishment. Every day, people are flogged in front of the public for various so-called offenses.”
The floggings have taken place in Kabul, Khost, Nangarhar, Zabul, Faryab, Kapisa, Parwan, Herat, Ghazni, and Bamiyan, underscoring the Taliban’s widespread enforcement of corporal punishment. Despite repeated calls from the United Nations and human rights organizations to end the practice, the Taliban have intensified public punishments since reclaiming power in 2021.
Over the past three years, the group has also carried out stonings, executions, and amputations, reviving punishments reminiscent of its first regime.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has taken notice. Recently, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan issued a request for arrest warrants against Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Supreme Court head Abdul Hakim Haqqani, accusing them of crimes against humanity and gender-based persecution.
With the Taliban further entrenching their rule, many fear a return to the full-scale repression of the 1990s, with devastating consequences for Afghan citizens—especially women.
