Official Taliban Data Shows 92 Percent Increase in Public Floggings

The Taliban Supreme Court statistics have revealed a sharp rise in public corporal punishment. There was a 92 percent increase in the implementation of flogging sentences in the first month of solar year 1405 in comparison with the previous month.

During this time, 115 people including 14 women were subjected to public flogging in 19 different provinces. The provinces are Kabul, Maidan Wardak, Daykundi, Nangarhar, Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Zabul, Ghazni, Herat, Badghis, Ghor, Nimroz, Balkh, Kunduz, Faryab, Sar-e Pol, Jowzjan, and Samangan.

Kabul province recorded the highest number with 24 cases. Nimroz followed with 17, Khost and Nangarhar with nine each, Balkh with eight, Herat with seven, and Sar-e Pol and Jowzjan with six each. The remaining provinces recorded lower numbers.

The statistics also indicate that nearly 1,200 people were flogged by the Taliban in the previous year, with qisas carried out on six people.

This increase has drawn international criticism. UN experts condemned the expansion of public executions and floggings in an official letter to the Taliban, calling it cruel and inhuman behavior.

Some Afghan citizens have expressed concern about the social impacts and called on the Taliban to end the policy of public corporal punishment.