The Taliban’s Supreme Court has announced the public flogging of five individuals, including two women, on charges of “illicit relations” in Jowzjan province and the city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
According to the court, the individuals were sentenced to between 25 and 39 lashes, which were carried out publicly in Qosh Tepa district and Mazar-e-Sharif city. The punishments were administered in the presence of local officials, court staff, security personnel, and members of the public.
The Taliban consider any relationship between unrelated men and women to be a punishable offence. In previous instances, individuals have been flogged for as little as phone contact between men and women.
The public punishments were authorised by the Taliban’s Supreme Court as part of the group’s enforcement of its interpretation of Sharia law. Over the past four years, the Taliban have subjected hundreds of people to corporal punishment, a practice widely condemned by human rights organisations.
The World Organization Against Torture has released a report exposing new and detailed accounts of physical and psychological abuse in Taliban detention centres, citing evidence of systematic torture by the group’s intelligence agency.
The report, based on extensive interviews with detainees held between 2021 and 2024, documents severe human rights violations including the burning of bodies with heated rods, beatings with electric cables, electric shocks, and sexual assault. Many victims were arrested arbitrarily and subjected to abuse during detention.
Prepared in collaboration with the Civil Society and Human Rights Network and Human Rights Defenders Plus, the report identifies the Taliban’s intelligence directorate as the primary body responsible for the repression of opposition voices. Victims include human rights defenders, journalists, female activists, minorities, and former government employees.
The organisation noted that many of the detention facilities are unregistered and operate without independent oversight, with their locations often unknown. In 2023, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) attributed over 60 percent of documented torture cases to Taliban intelligence.
Detainees interviewed for the report described being blindfolded, transferred to undisclosed locations, and subjected to repeated acts of physical and psychological torture. Methods included beatings with water pipes and electric cables, electric shocks, simulated drowning, and burning with heated rods.
Most victims were held in small, dark solitary confinement cells, with some reporting detention lasting up to three months. The report states that psychological abuse was integral to the Taliban’s strategy, including death threats, religious and gender-based insults, intimidation, and forced confessions.
Victims also reported being denied access to healthcare, legal representation, and family visits. The report highlights that the abuse was often ideological and discriminatory in nature, targeting victims' identities and beliefs with the intent to degrade and dehumanise them.
The report further documents widespread discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities, particularly Shia Muslims and Hazaras. Detainees recounted being subjected to derogatory slurs, denied family contact, and insulted based on their ethnicity and faith throughout their detention.
Human rights groups have previously reported on similar patterns of abuse in Taliban prisons. Last week, the organisation Rawadari published its own findings, alleging that the Taliban systematically engage in physical, sexual, and psychological torture from the moment of arrest through to release, in violation of international human rights standards.
The United Nations has warned that Afghan returnees, particularly women, former military personnel, ex-government employees, and journalists, are at serious risk of torture, arbitrary detention, and other human rights violations under Taliban rule.
In a newly released report, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office documented accounts from 49 returnees in 2024, most of whom were forcibly deported from Pakistan and Iran. The report outlines consistent patterns of abuse by the Taliban, including arbitrary arrest, torture, and threats to personal security.
One former government employee described being detained and tortured during two nights in Taliban custody. The abuse reportedly included beatings with sticks and cables, waterboarding, mock executions, and resulted in a broken leg.
A female journalist said that following her return, she was stripped of her basic freedoms, including the right to work, freedom of movement, and access to education for her daughters. She described her situation as one of house detention.
According to the report, many former soldiers and government officials have been forced into hiding since their return, fearing persecution and reprisals by the Taliban. The report states that deporting individuals to a country where they face the risk of torture, enforced disappearance, or inhumane treatment constitutes a violation of international law.
The United Nations has urged all countries to carry out individual risk assessments before deporting Afghans and to halt returns where serious threats to safety exist. It also called for the establishment of safe and legal pathways for at-risk Afghans seeking to leave the country.
The report comes amid widespread deportations, with hundreds of thousands of Afghans expelled from neighbouring countries since 2023. The UN has appealed to donor nations to increase financial support for reintegration programmes to assist returnees.
Separately, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has published new findings detailing severe physical and psychological abuse in Taliban detention facilities, including accounts of beatings with electric cables, electric shocks, and burning with heated rods.
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has voiced concern over the detention of women in Kabul by the Taliban’s morality police, warning that such actions further isolate women and girls and create an atmosphere of fear.
The arrests reportedly occurred on Friday and Saturday in the Dasht-e-Barchi area of Kabul, where Taliban officers from the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice detained dozens of young women for allegedly violating the group’s dress code.
UNAMA issued a statement on the social media platform X, saying it had contacted Taliban authorities to obtain more information about the detentions. The mission warned that such actions undermine public trust and urged the Taliban to repeal policies that restrict women’s rights and freedoms.
Local sources told Afghanistan International that Taliban officers used force during the arrests, and no female officers were present at the time of the detentions.
UNAMA reiterated its call for the Taliban to reverse any practices and policies that limit the fundamental rights of women and girls.
A teacher in Paktika province has been sentenced to death by a Taliban court without access to legal counsel or family visits, according to local sources.
The teacher, Abdul Alim Khamoosh, was reportedly detained for comments made in support of modern education.
The Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has claimed the sentencing followed complaints from religious scholars. However, sources say the proceedings took place without legal representation and without the family being informed.
Khamoosh was previously sentenced to two years in prison after allegedly stating during the Iran-Israel conflict that modern sciences held more value than religious teachings. Following public and international attention, the Taliban reportedly revised the charges to include blasphemy, resulting in the death sentence.
Local tribal elders from Janikhel district are expected to travel to Kabul to appeal the sentence. Some sources have alleged that Khamoosh was tortured in custody and forced to confess to charges of insulting Islamic sanctities.
The case has raised concerns among rights organisations about the Taliban’s use of closed trials, corporal punishments, and harsh penalties under their interpretation of Sharia law.
Khamoosh had returned to Afghanistan through the Taliban’s so-called “invitation commission” after previously leaving the country. His family has been warned not to speak to the media and has not been allowed to visit him in detention. The total details of his trial remain undisclosed.
The Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has confirmed the arrest of several individuals in Kabul for allegedly dubbing films that the group claims violate Islamic values.
Saif-ul-Islam Khyber, spokesperson for the ministry, said on Friday that staff and managers from several media production companies had been detained, and their offices shut down. Speaking to the Taliban-controlled national broadcaster, Khyber alleged that the dubbed films were sent to foreign networks and served as part of a systematic propaganda campaign against Islamic principles.
Earlier in the week, sources in Kabul told Afghanistan International that Taliban morality police had detained dozens of young women from the city’s Shahr-e Naw area. A relative of one of the detainees said around 100 women were arrested from streets, markets, and hospitals and transferred to facilities operated by the ministry.
A video obtained by Afghanistan International shows a group of frightened women surrounded by Taliban officers during the arrests.
The Taliban has not provided details on the legal basis for the arrests or whether the detainees had access to legal representation. The crackdown comes amid growing concerns over the group’s restrictions on media, women's rights, and freedom of expression.