Taliban Flog More Than 240 People in Public over the Past Three Months

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The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in its latest quarterly report on the human rights situation in the country, has said that over the past three months, more than 240 people have been flogged in public by the Taliban on various charges.

According to the report, released on Tuesday (28 October), between 1 July and the end of September this year, at least 242 people, including 48 women and two teenage girls, were flogged in public.

UNAMA said Taliban courts convicted these individuals on charges such as “running away from home,” “telephone contact with a non-mahram man,” “theft,” “adultery,” and “murder.”

The report also noted that in August, in the city of Herat, Taliban police displayed the body of a man they had killed in public at the Kandahar Gate area. According to UNAMA, the body was first paraded through the city on a Police vehicle and then hung from the barrel of an old tank. The motive and reason for the killing remain unclear.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, the group has systematically used corporal punishments, including flogging, as a tool to instil fear and suppress the population. The United Nations has described these punishments as a grave violation of human rights and has called on the Taliban to immediately end such practices.