AFGHANISTAN: TALIBAN FLOG 13 PEOPLE, INCLUDING FIVE WOMEN, IN KHOST AND JAWZJAN

The Taliban have publicly flogged 13 people, including five women, in the provinces of Khost and Jawzjan on charges ranging from “illicit relations” and “fleeing their home” to blasphemy, bribery, and false reporting, the group’s Supreme Court said in a statement on April 12, 2025.
The court claimed that those punished in Khost received between 35 and 39 lashes and were sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to five years. The floggings, the statement said, were conducted in public following the approval of the Taliban’s Supreme Court.
Witnesses to the punishments reportedly included relatives of the accused women, Taliban judicial officials, and local residents.
The floggings are part of a broader surge in corporal punishments and public executions across Afghanistan.
On April 11, the Taliban carried out executions of four men in the provinces of Farah, Nimroz, and Badghis on murder charges.
Data released by the Taliban’s Supreme Court show that between March 2024 and March 2025, at least 456 people — including 60 women — were flogged in 26 provinces, including Kabul and Kandahar.
During recent Eid meetings with Taliban officials, the group’s reclusive leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, reportedly called for intensified use of corporal punishments, signaling continued defiance of international calls to respect human rights.