1.2.8. Capital and corporal punishments

Table of contents

1.2.8. Capital and corporal punishments

After their takeover, the Taliban reopened courts across Afghanistan but replaced former staff with male Taliban judges educated in madrassas.405 The interpretation of sharia has largely been left to individual judges,406 who enjoy almost complete authority in court proceedings.407 This has caused great variations in verdicts.408 Amnesty International described how court proceedings and sentences, including corporal punishments, are impacted by widespread impunity, unaccountability and personal biases.409

On 14 November 2022, the Taliban Supreme Leader ordered all de facto judges to fully implement sharia,410 and issue so-called hudud and qisas411 punishments where applicable.412 Such punishments include execution, stoning, flogging and amputation.413 Since then, de facto courts have been handing down capital punishment414 and floggings.415 In some cases large groups have been lashed all at once,416 and floggings417 and executions have been carried out in public – including at sport stadiums.418

At the time of writing, the UN had recorded ten public executions in total since the Taliban takeover in 2021. All the executed were individuals convicted of murder,419 and enforcement had been recorded in the provinces of Badghis, Farah, Ghazni, Jawzjan, Laghman, Nimroz, and Paktya.420 On 11 April 2025, four men convicted of murder were publicly executed in front of hundreds of spectators,421 at sport stadiums of Badghis, Nimroz and Farah.422 They were shot to death by family members of the murder victims.423

In the first six months of 2025, both UNAMA and Rawadari recorded hundreds of cases of judicially sanctioned floggings.424 According to UNAMA corporal punishments were carried out in public on a weekly basis,425 while Rawadari, on the contrary, reported that most floggings were not publicly displayed, as they were often used as supplementary punishments to imprisonment. However, Rawadari noted that ‘moral crimes’ were punished in public, with de facto MPVPV officials and imams advertising these events to attract crowds.426

Data collected by Rawadari suggested a significant increase in floggings, with 326 people flogged in the first six months of 2025, including 64 women. This represented more than a two-fold increase compared to the same period in 2024, and more than a four-fold increase since 2023.427 UNAMA recorded corporal punishment against 656 individuals in the period 1 January–30 September 2025 (518 men, 131 women, 5 girls and 2 boys).428

Floggings have been used as punishment for moral crimes such as ‘running away from home’ for women, same-sex sexual relations between men, and extramarital relations,429 and reportedly also for theft, drinking alcohol and drug trafficking.430 People have been lashed up to 39 times,431 but on 27 November 2024 a man was reportedly flogged 80 times for falsely accusing another man of adultery.432 In March 2024, the Taliban Supreme Leader announced that the stoning sentence would be enforced for adultery.433 Rawadari has recorded cases of women being sentenced to stoning,434 including a woman in Daykundi accused of having an ‘illegitimate’ child. As of August 2025, the sentence had not been enforced awaiting approval from higher de facto courts.435 Rahimi noted that almost no hudud sentences were being enforced, including stoning and hand amputation, as they were pending approval from the Taliban Supreme Leader.436

  • 405

    Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI 2024 Country Report, Afghanistan, 19 March 2024, url, p. 12; ILAC, Justice Matters: A Status Report on Afghanistan Since the Taliban Takeover, 2023, url, pp. 6–7

  • 406

    ILAC, Justice Matters: A Status Report on Afghanistan Since the Taliban Takeover, 2023, url, pp. 6–7; VOA, Taliban Undertake Speedy Overhaul of Afghanistan’s Justice System, 28 September 2023, url

  • 407

    Kerr Chiovenda, M., email, 29 November 2025

  • 408

    AI, Friday 15ht of August marks four years since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan., 15 August 2025, url; ILAC, Justice Matters: A Status Report on Afghanistan Since the Taliban Takeover, 2023, url, pp. 6–7

  • 409

    AI, Afghanistan: Authorities must reinstate formal legal frameworks, rule of law and end four years of injustice and impunity, 15 August 2025, url

  • 410

    TOLOnews, Islamic Emirate Leader Orders Full Implementation of Sharia Law, 14 November 2022, url

  • 411

    ‘Hudud offenses are crimes against God whose punishment is clearly specified in the Quran and the Sunna (prophetic traditions), and Qisas are physical assault and murder punishable through retaliation by the victim or heirs of the victim or through the payment of blood money’, see Rahimi, M., Afghanistan’s new Penal Code: Whether or Not to codify Hudud and Qisas, University of Texas School of Law, n.d., url

  • 412

    UNAMA, Corporal Punishment and the Death Penalty in Afghanistan, 3 May 2023, url, p. 5

  • 413

    AFP, Afghan supreme leader orders full implementation of sharia law, 14 November 2022, url

  • 414

    UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: January–March 2024, 1 May 2024, url, pp. 4–5

  • 415

    AI, Afghanistan: Taliban’s cruel return to hardline practices with public floggings must be halted immediately, 24 November 2022, url

  • 416

    UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: January–March 2025, 1 May 2025, url, p. 5; Kabul Now, Taliban Publicly Flogs Over 60 Afghans, Including 15 Women, in Northern Afghanistan, 4 June 2024, url

  • 417

    Rawadari, The Afghanistan Mid-Year Human Rights Situation Report, August 2024, url, p. 23; Kabul Now, Taliban Publicly Flogs Over 60 Afghans, Including 15 Women, in Northern Afghanistan, 4 June 2024, url

  • 418

    UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: January–March 2024, 1 May 2024, url, pp. 4–5; UN Human Rights Council, The situation of human rights in Afghanistan, 5 September 2025, url, para. 35

  • 419

    UN Human Rights Council, The situation of human rights in Afghanistan, 5 September 2025, url, para. 34

  • 420

    UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: April-June 2025, 24 July 2025, url, p. 5

  • 421

    Rawadari, Afghanistan Mid-Year Human Rights Situation Report: January–June 30, 2025, August 2025, url, p. 34

  • 422

    UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: April-June 2025, 24 July 2025, url, p. 4; Rawadari, Afghanistan Mid-Year Human Rights Situation Report: January–June 30, 2025, August 2025, url, p. 34

  • 423

    UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: April-June 2025, 24 July 2025, url, p. 4; RFE/RL, Public Executions By Taliban Spark Global Outcry, 11 April 2025, url

  • 424

    UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: April-June 2025, 24 July 2025, url, p. 5; Rawadari, Afghanistan Mid-Year Human Rights Situation Report: January–June 30, 2025, August 2025, url, p. 34

  • 425

    UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: April-June 2025, 24 July 2025, url, p. 5

  • 426

    Rawadari, Afghanistan Mid-Year Human Rights Situation Report: January–June 30, 2025, August 2025, url, pp. 34–36

  • 427

    Rawadari, Afghanistan Mid-Year Human Rights Situation Report: January–June 30, 2025, August 2025, url, pp. 34–36

  • 428

    UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: April-June 2025, 24 July 2025, url, p. 5; UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: January-March 2025, 1 May 2025, url, p. 5; UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: July-September 2025, url, p. 5

  • 429

    Rawadari, Afghanistan Mid-Year Human Rights Situation Report: January–June 30, 2025, August 2025, url, p. 34; UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: January-March 2025, 1 May 2025, url, p. 5; VOA, Taliban publicly flog Afghan woman, 3 men amid UN outcry, 29 October 2024, url; VOA, Taliban publicly flog 9 Afghan men, women despite UN outcry, 9 October 2024, url

  • 430

    UN Human Rights Council, The situation of human rights in Afghanistan, 5 September 2025, url, para. 3; Rawadari, Afghanistan Mid-Year Human Rights Situation Report: January–June 30, 2025, August 2025, url, p. 34

  • 431

    UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: April-June 2025, 24 July 2025, url, p. 5

  • 432

    AW, Taliban enforce first Hadd punishment with public flogging in Parwan, 20 December 2024, url

  • 433

    Telegraph (The), Taliban leader says women will be stoned to death in public, 25 March 2025, url

  • 434

    Rawadari, Afghanistan Mid-Year Human Rights Situation Report: January–June 30, 2025, August 2025, url, p. 34; Rawadari, The Afghanistan Mid-Year Human Rights Situation Report, August 2024, url, p. 23

  • 435

    Rawadari, Afghanistan Mid-Year Human Rights Situation Report: January–June 30, 2025, August 2025, url, p. 34

  • 436

    Rahimi, H., online interview, 30 October 2025. The interview was conducted by the EUAA in cooperation with the Belgian and Romanian COI units.