RASC News Agency: The Taliban’s Supreme Court has announced that 18 individuals, including four women, were publicly flogged in Khost province on charges of extramarital relations and “sodomy.” In a statement issued on Monday, February 24, the court confirmed that the accused were subjected to corporal punishment in a public setting. According to the Taliban, the individuals received sentences ranging from one to seven years in prison, in addition to 39 lashes each. Just a day earlier, the group had also flogged a man in Takhar province on similar charges. Despite widespread international condemnation of such human rights violations, the Taliban continue to carry out extrajudicial trials and public punishments.
Reports from cities and provinces across Afghanistan indicate that under Taliban rule, Afghanistani citizens are enduring some of the most harrowing conditions in recent history. Beyond rampant unemployment, poverty, and systemic deprivation, they face relentless persecution under an oppressive political, ethnic, and tribal regime. The Taliban have arbitrarily detained, flogged, tortured, imprisoned, and even executed individuals on various charges, including alleged affiliations with the National Resistance Front (NRF), the Freedom Front, and ISIS, as well as past service in the former Afghanistan security forces. Others have been subjected to brutal punishment under accusations of theft, adultery, robbery, or mere suspicion.
This grim reality has left the Afghanistani people deeply anxious about their future. Many lament that under Taliban rule, “Nothing is secure neither our lives nor our mental and emotional well-being. On top of that, poverty, unemployment, and excessive taxation have made survival nearly impossible.”
