Five years after the Taliban returned to power, Afghan human rights advocates have documented thousands of public floggings in Afghanistan.

From February 22, 2022, through April 21, 2026, at least 2,745 people were publicly flogged in 634 documented incidents, according to an assessment by the Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization (AHRDO), which operates in exile and shared the data it has collected with the German Editorial Network (RND).

According to the data, the victims included 422 women, 1,761 men, and 562 individuals whose gender was not recorded. For 2025, AHRDO documented 1,073 people. From the beginning of this year through April 21, the figure had reached 535 people for 2026.

Women targeted for morality offenses

Two-thirds of the documented flogging incidents were linked to alleged sexual offenses or morality violations, such as engaging in extramarital relationships, adultery, “moral corruption,” running away from home, or assisting someone in escaping.

Violent crimes, such as murder, rape, kidnapping, or causing bodily harm, accounted for only 4.4% of the incidents.

According to the data, women were particularly frequently punished for alleged sexual offenses or morality violations. Of the 422 documented women, 399—nearly 95%—were sentenced to public flogging on such charges.

Floggings also documented by the United Nations

AHRDO also examined whether those punished had been convicted before their sentences were carried out. However, the relevant data can be reliably evaluated only for 2025 and 2026, because judicial status had rarely been recorded before then.

During those two years, those punished were recorded as having been charged, but not convicted, in 33.2% of the cases. In 79.2% of all documented cases, a prison sentence was imposed in addition to the flogging.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in its latest report on the humanitarian situation in the country, documented corporal punishment against 112 men and 25 women during the second quarter of the year.