In a chilling display of the Taliban’s hardline justice system, three afghan women were among 14 individuals publicly flogged this week across multiple provinces in Afghanistan, including Kabul, Parwan, and Faryab. The punishments, administered after convictions for charges such as “illicit relations,” running away from home, and drug-related offences, have sparked renewed outrage over the Taliban’s treatment of women and use of corporal punishment.
According to multiple statements issued by the Taliban’s Supreme Court, the floggings were carried out after verdicts handed down by provincial courts. Sentences ranged from seven months to five years in prison, accompanied by public lashings, a practice widely condemned as torture under international law.
In Kabul, six individuals were convicted by the Taliban’s primary counter-narcotics court of selling methamphetamine and heroin. Each was sentenced to seven to nine months in prison and 10 public lashes.
In Parwan province, six people، including two women, were sentenced to three to five years in prison and 39 lashes in public on charges of extramarital affairs and murder.
The most harrowing incident occurred in Pashtun Kot district of Faryab, where a man and a woman were accused of “running away from home” and engaging in “illicit relations.” Both received 39 public lashes and prison sentences ranging from eight months to a year.
The Taliban did not release any details about the legal process, including whether the accused had access to legal representation, the right to appeal, or a fair trial, all core tenets of international justice norms. Human rights groups fear that women, in particular, are being subjected to sham trials and disproportionate punishments under the group’s ultra-conservative interpretation of Sharia law.
“Public floggings, especially of women, serve no purpose other than to humiliate and control. These are acts of state violence cloaked in religious legitimacy,” said one Afghan human rights advocate, speaking anonymously for fear of retaliation.
Despite growing international pressure and condemnation, the Taliban continues to carry out public corporal punishments as part of its de facto judicial system, rolling back two decades of hard-won human rights protections for Afghan women.
