The Taliban have once again showcased the brutal face of their self-declared justice. According to the Taliban’s Supreme Court, 14 individuals — including one woman — were publicly flogged and sentenced to prison in the provinces of Zabul and Kabul on various charges.
In separate announcements posted Wednesday, Asad 15 (August 6), on the court’s official account on social media platform X, the court stated that the accused were convicted of crimes such as theft, adultery, sodomy, and trafficking or selling drugs. Each received between 10 to 39 lashes in public and several were additionally sentenced to 1–3 years in prison.
In Shah Joy district of Zabul province, four men were punished for theft and sodomy, while three others — including a woman — were lashed for so-called “illicit relations.” Simultaneously, seven individuals in Kabul were flogged for involvement in the sale and use of narcotics and alcohol.
The court did not disclose the identities of those punished.
These public punishments continue despite repeated condemnations by international human rights organizations — including Human Rights Watch and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights — who have called these acts of corporal punishment and public humiliation a clear violation of human dignity and international law.
Nevertheless, the Taliban persist in defending such practices as part of “Islamic Sharia implementation” — a claim that global experts have widely rejected as a distorted and politicized interpretation of Islam, used to consolidate power through fear, repression, and the targeted subjugation of women and minority groups.
Earlier this year, Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan, warned of a sharp rise in public punishments under Taliban rule, with women increasingly becoming targets of these brutal measures in 2025.
