RASC News Agency: In a grim continuation of its public corporal punishment campaign, the Taliban’s so-called Supreme Court has announced that eight individuals have been flogged in the provinces of Kabul and Kapisa under charges ranging from narcotics trafficking to alleged opposition to the regime. According to a statement released on Sunday, august 3, the Taliban’s judiciary in Kabul convicted seven individuals on drug-related charges, sentencing them to prison terms ranging from one to five years and administering between 10 to 30 lashes each. Meanwhile, in Kapisa, the Taliban’s Court of Appeals sentenced one individual to 39 lashes and one year and six months in prison on the vague and politically charged accusation of “propaganda against the system.”
Azizurrahman Haqqani, the head of the Taliban appeals court in Kapisa, defended the brutal sentences by invoking a hardline interpretation of Islamic law. “Discretionary punishments in Islamic Sharia are not only meant to reform the criminal but to serve as a lesson to others,” Haqqani declared, reinforcing the Taliban’s ideological justification for corporal violence. However, these acts of public flogging along with frequent public executions and other severe punishments have drawn widespread condemnation from international human rights bodies and democratic governments alike. The United Nations has repeatedly called on the Taliban to cease torture and inhumane punishments, urging the regime to honor Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights treaties. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have described such punishments as “degrading” and “violative of human dignity.”
The European Union, too, has issued strong warnings, stating that the Taliban’s continued implementation of corporal punishments severely undermines any prospects of international recognition. The EU has emphasized that a regime which relies on public beatings, silencing dissent, and shaming victims has no place in the global diplomatic community. At the same time, numerous respected Islamic scholars both within Afghanistan and across the broader Muslim world have denounced the Taliban’s judicial actions as un-Islamic. These scholars argue that the group’s selective and politically motivated use of “Sharia law” contradicts the core principles of justice and due process in Islam. They warn that the Taliban’s interpretation not only misrepresents Islamic jurisprudence but weaponizes religion to justify repression and consolidate power.
Despite growing domestic and international pressure, the Taliban continues to enforce these punishments on a near-daily basis. Arbitrary detentions, public floggings, and other forms of physical punishment are presented by the group as part of its commitment to “implementing Islamic rulings.” Yet critics argue that these actions serve more to terrorize the population, intimidate opponents, and portray a false image of religious legitimacy. As Afghanistan remains isolated under the Taliban’s brutal grip, the use of public violence as a judicial tool only deepens the country’s human rights crisis and distances it further from any path toward lawful governance, accountability, or international reintegration.
