Taliban Flog Four People Including Two Women in Balkh and Laghman

Image: AP via independent.co.uk

The Taliban have flogged four people, including two women, in the provinces of Balkh and Laghman on charges of “illicit relations” and “running away from home.”

The Taliban Supreme Court announced in separate press releases on Wednesday (September 10) that a woman and a man in Balkh province were each sentenced to one year in prison and 39 lashes. In Laghman province, another woman and man were sentenced to seven years in prison and 39 lashes.

These punishments were carried out in the presence of Taliban officials, local court judges, and a crowd of people. The Taliban described this action as the “implementation of hudud and sharia rulings.”

This comes as Richard Bennett, the UN Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, recently stated that since the beginning of this year alone, the Taliban have flogged and imprisoned more than 600 people.

Four years after the Taliban’s return to power and despite widespread international condemnation, public floggings and desert trials continue. Human rights activists say that public flogging is a clear violation of human dignity and that the international community must not remain silent in the face of such violence.