Today in Afghanistan, public squares and sports stadiums have become sites of fear, humiliation, and state-enforced cruelty. Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have revived one of their most archaic and oppressive tools of control– public flogging. Men and women alike are whipped in front of crowds, often accused of “moral crimes” or minor offenses, in a deliberate campaign to terrorize the population into submission.
According to data from Taliban court records and human rights organizations, more than 1,200 people have been publicly flogged since the group’s return to power, including at least 200 women. These numbers are likely inaccurate due to the number of unreported instances, coupled with the Taliban’s attempt at media censorship since returning to power. In just the past two months alone, 126 individuals were lashed across 19 provinces, with women accused of traveling without a male guardian, speaking to an unrelated man, or violating the Taliban’s rigid dress code.
These punishments are carried out with no semblance of due process. Taliban-controlled courts, which often happen to be makeshift and run by “vice and virtue” or morality police, coerce certain confessions and deny defendants any access to legal representation. The floggings are not isolated incidents but part of a systematic campaign of repression which is designed to instill fear, enforce obedience, and normalize the Taliban’s extremist ideology.
For Afghan women, the consequences are particularly devastating. Their daily existence is already defined by a system of gender apartheid: banned from secondary and higher education, stripped from most jobs, confined to their homes without a male guardian, and subjected to constant surveillance. Flogging adds a new layer of physical and psychological torture.
Deeba, a 38-year-old mother of seven, was flogged in front of a crowd for appearing in public without a male guardian. “They took me to a public place, covered my head, and whipped me in front of everyone,” she said. “When I was released, even my closest friends treated me differently. They called me names and spoke with disgust”.
Younger women face similar horror. Sahar, 22, was arrested for riding in a car with her cousin to a medical clinic. She was forced to falsely confess to an inappropriate relationship and received 30 lashes in front of her family and neighbors. “My little sister was there. She used to say I was her role model. I saw her crying in the crowd. That broke me,” she recalled.
The Taliban justify these acts under their harsh interpretation of Sharia law, but human rights experts and international organizations have repeatedly condemned the practice. Amnesty International calls public floggings “a cruel and shocking return to out-and-out hardline practices,” stressing that they violate the prohibition of torture under international law. Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, has warned that these punishments, often handed down by extrajudicial tribunals, tend to deepen political repression and erode any semblance of justice.
Public flogging is not only a tool of punishment, it is an instrument of indoctrination. By staging these acts in front of mass audiences, the Taliban aim to normalize cruelty and cement a society where fear replaces law. Some residents describe floggings becoming “routine” events, with crowds gathering to watch. This normalization of violence ensures that those who might otherwise resist remain silent and give no choice but to succumb to the Taliban’s regressive rules.
Few countries in the modern era rely so heavily on flogging as a cornerstone of governance. Its use alongside travel bans for women, mass detentions, and the erasure of women from public life illustrates the Taliban’s vision clearly, which is that of a society frozen in fear, stripped of dignity, and molded entirely to their oppressive ideology.
The international community has condemned these atrocities, but concrete measures still remain scarce. As the Taliban tighten their grip, Afghan women and men are being flogged into silence, with their bodies and lives turned into a warning for the rest of the country to obey restrictions that erode their basic human rights. Ending this cycle of terror will require not only condemnation and formal recognition of gender apartheid and the Taliban’s crimes, but sustained global action to hold the Taliban accountable for crimes that are not only deeply inhumane, but are a stain on humanity itself.
(All names are made up for interviewees’ safety)