RASC News Agency: In yet another chilling reminder of their draconian rule, the Taliban’s so-called Supreme Court announced that 13 individuals, including three women, were subjected to public flogging on Wednesday, May 14, across the provinces of Parwan, Ghazni, and Kapisa. These punishments, carried out under the pretext of “moral offenses,” are emblematic of the Taliban’s continued use of state-sponsored violence and gender persecution as tools of control. In Bagram district, Parwan province, five people cincluding one womancwere whipped in public on charges of ‘zina’ (adultery). Each was lashed 39 times in a public square and handed prison sentences ranging from two to three years. These sentences are imposed without due process, in what human rights groups have repeatedly described as kangaroo courts designed to instill fear, not justice.
In Waghaz district of Ghazni, two men were flogged 30 times each for allegedly engaging in same-sex relations (‘lavat’). One was sentenced to a year in prison, the other to three months. These brutal acts further underline the Taliban’s relentless campaign of violence against sexual minorities, who are systematically dehumanized and criminalized under the group’s extremist interpretation of Sharia law. Meanwhile, in Kapisa province’s Hesa-ye Awal and Hesa-ye Duwum districts, six more individuals, including two women, were publicly whipped on charges ranging from “running away from home” to “illicit relationships,” “sodomy,” and “sexual assault.” Four received 39 lashes each, while two others were lashed 22 times. All were sentenced to six months to one year in prison. These punishments are not only cruel and disproportionate but are also handed down in complete absence of internationally recognized legal standards.
Since their forceful return to power in August 2021, the Taliban have made public floggings and executions a cornerstone of their regime, transforming town squares into theatres of public humiliation and state-sanctioned terror. These actions are carried out without transparency, often without defense counsel or even formal charges. The accused, many of them women and members of marginalized communities, are left voiceless in a system designed to punish, not protect. International human rights organizations have condemned these punishments as flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and basic human dignity. Groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have warned that the Taliban’s so-called justice system represents a deliberate policy of gender apartheid and ideological violence, aimed at silencing dissent and subjugating entire communities.
Despite mounting international outrage, the Taliban continue to weaponize religion to justify acts of brutality and repression. Their regime thrives on fear, censorship, and the systematic dismantling of civil liberties, while the world watches Afghanistan slide further into an abyss of human suffering and authoritarian darkness. In the face of these atrocities, RASC News Agency calls on the international community to halt all forms of engagement that could legitimize the Taliban regime, and to stand in solidarity with the victims of this barbaric justice system, who continue to suffer in silence behind a wall of impunity and neglect.
