RASC News Agency: In a chilling continuation of its medieval justice system, the Taliban’s so-called Supreme Court has confirmed that on Wednesday, May 14, thirteen individuals including three women were publicly flogged across the provinces of Parwan, Ghazni, and Kapisa. These public punishments, delivered under vague and often unverified allegations, reflect the Taliban’s relentless campaign to instill fear and assert authoritarian control over Afghanistan’s already oppressed population. In Bagram district of Parwan, five individuals one of them a woman were convicted of “zina” (extramarital sexual relations), a charge frequently used by the Taliban to persecute women and criminalize consensual relationships. Each of the accused received 39 lashes in public and was sentenced to two to three years in prison. These trials are conducted without transparency, legal representation, or appeals, denying the accused even the most basic tenets of justice.
In Waghaz district of Ghazni, two men were publicly flogged 30 lashes each on charges of “lavat” (homosexual conduct), followed by prison sentences of one year and three months, respectively. Such actions further underscore the Taliban’s draconian stance on LGBTQ rights, rooted in an extremist ideology that criminalizes identity and obliterates personal freedoms. In Hesa Awal and Hesa Duwum districts of Kapisa, six people including two women were subjected to public lashings on a range of accusations, including “running away from home,” “illicit relationships,” “lavat,” and even “sexual assault.” Four of the victims received 39 lashes, while two others were flogged 22 times. Prison sentences of up to one year were also handed down. These so-called trials and punishments often occur with no clear evidence and rely on confessions obtained under duress or social coercion.
Since retaking control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have aggressively reinstated public corporal punishments and executions. These acts, often staged before gathered crowds, are not only state-sanctioned violence but also strategic displays of domination aimed at stifling dissent and reinforcing ideological control. “These are not judicial proceedings; they are orchestrated performances of cruelty,” said a Kabul-based human rights observer, speaking anonymously due to security threats. “There is no fairness, no accountability only pain and shame.” International rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, have repeatedly condemned these punishments as “barbaric violations of human dignity.” They have called on the Taliban to immediately cease the use of flogging and public executions, noting that these practices violate Afghanistan’s commitments under international human rights treaties commitments the Taliban now blatantly disregard.
The Taliban’s obsession with enforcing rigid moral codes often with violent consequences stands in stark contrast to their inaction on the country’s deepening humanitarian crisis. Instead of tackling mass unemployment, hunger, or the collapse of health and education systems, the regime has focused its energies on punishing women, criminalizing LGBTQ individuals, and erasing any form of cultural or personal freedom. “Under the Taliban, the law has been weaponized not to protect, but to control and crush,” said a European-based Afghanistani legal analyst. “Women, minorities, the poor these are the people who suffer while Taliban leaders rule with impunity.” Afghanistan now teeters on the brink of institutional collapse and moral darkness, where justice is a facade and cruelty is a tool of governance. Public floggings are not isolated acts they are deliberate policies designed to instill fear, silence the population, and project an image of power that masks the Taliban’s intellectual and political illegitimacy. RASC News Agency remains committed to exposing these abuses, providing a voice for the silenced, and holding the Taliban regime accountable in the eyes of the world.
