Haqqani Acknowledges Possible Taliban Retaliation Against Former Afghan Officials

The report, released Wednesday, is based on interviews with 34 former detainees including seven women who were held between August 2021 and January 2025. Of those interviewed, 33 said they were detained without legal warrants, formal charges or access to fair trial procedures. Most had been held by Taliban intelligence operatives.

Rawadari’s findings indicate that torture was used not only as a tool for extracting forced confessions but also to suppress dissent, punish former government employees and intimidate critics of the Taliban. The group reported that detainees were subjected to beatings, electric shocks, sexual harassment, prolonged solitary confinement, food deprivation, and denial of medical care. Some were held in secret or private detention facilities with no access to legal counsel or judicial review.

According to the report, several individuals said they were transported to detention centres with black bags over their heads, often in the trunks of private vehicles. Fifteen detainees described this treatment as a deliberate attempt to degrade and humiliate. Twenty-seven said they had no access to a defence lawyer during proceedings, and in 24 cases, particularly those involving Taliban intelligence, the detainees said their cases were never brought before a court.

Rawadari noted that in some instances, Taliban intelligence agents tortured prisoners for entertainment, and harassment of some individuals continued even after their release. The report drew on testimony from individuals across 16 provinces who had spent anywhere from two hours to three years in custody.

The organisation stressed that there are currently no independent institutions inside Afghanistan capable of monitoring detention conditions or investigating abuses. It called on the international community to apply coordinated pressure on the Taliban to comply with international human rights obligations, especially the Convention Against Torture.

The Taliban have not commented on the report. The group has previously denied systematic abuse in its detention practices, claiming that prisoners are treated according to Islamic and Afghan law.

The report was delivered to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) during a session attended by Afghanistan’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, human-rights organisations and members of the committee.

Fawzia Koofi, a former deputy speaker of Afghanistan’s parliament and one of the delegates, told Afghanistan International the report assesses women’s political participation, access to education and healthcare, and other basic rights. She said the document was reviewed in detail and will now be circulated to CEDAW states parties for comment.

Koofi urged Germany, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands to accelerate efforts to refer the Taliban to the International Court of Justice, warning that the human-rights situation is deteriorating. The four governments have signalled they will file a case unless conditions for Afghan women improve.

Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, women have been barred from most public, educational, political and economic spheres, measures Koofi said violate Articles 7 and 8 of CEDAW, which guarantee women’s full participation in public life.

Participants in Tuesday’s meeting voiced deep concern over ongoing, organised rights violations and called for coordinated international pressure on the Taliban to meet its treaty obligations.

Afghanistan acceded to CEDAW in 2003, committing to align domestic laws with the convention and to file periodic progress reports. The former Afghan government submitted reports in 2011 and 2019. With no internationally recognised government now in place, a coalition of women activists compiled and presented this year’s assessment on Afghanistan’s behalf.

According to the court, the pair were each sentenced to 39 lashes and one year and six months in prison by the Taliban’s primary court in Kabul’s Fourth District. The flogging was carried out in the courtyard of the court.

This marked the second flogging reported by the Taliban in a single day. Earlier in Sar-e Pol province, another individual was publicly flogged on charges of “trespassing and causing injury,” according to local officials.

The Taliban regularly issues statements on the implementation of corporal punishments. Last week alone, the group reported that at least 56 men and women had been flogged across Afghanistan for a range of alleged offences.

Over the past four years, international human rights organisations have repeatedly called on the Taliban to end the use of corporal punishment. However, the group continues to defend public floggings and executions as part of its interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

According to a statement issued by the court, the individual was sentenced to 20 lashes, five months’ imprisonment, and ordered to pay 5,000 Afghanis in compensation for the victim’s medical treatment. The flogging was carried out in the presence of court officials, government employees, and local residents.

Separately, the Taliban’s primary counter-narcotics court in Kabul sentenced 25 individuals to public floggings on Saturday for charges related to drug trafficking and sales.

In the past week alone, the Taliban has publicly flogged at least 53 people across Afghanistan, including five women. The group describes such punishments as the enforcement of “Islamic Sharia orders,” despite international condemnation of corporal punishment and human rights violations.

Human rights organisations continue to raise concerns about the lack of fair trial standards, legal representation, and transparency in the Taliban’s judicial system.

The two individuals received 39 lashes each. The statement did not specify whether the punishment was carried out in public, as previous announcements from the Taliban have typically indicated.

The court noted that the sentence was executed following approval by the Taliban’s Supreme Court, referring to the accused as “criminals.”

Despite international condemnation from human rights organisations over the use of corporal punishment and torture, the Taliban continue to administer public floggings. The group claims such punishments are in accordance with “Islamic Sharia law.”

The Taliban’s use of public corporal punishment has drawn widespread criticism for violating international human rights norms, particularly in cases involving women.