27 people publicly lashed in a day in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan

Twenty-seven people were publicly lashed in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan on Thursday, according to reports.

The punishments were meted out for alleged adultery, theft, and drug offences, said US-based outlet The Diplomat.

Afghanistan’s Supreme Court said that 18 men and nine women were punished in the northern province of Parwan. 

The men and women were lashed between 25 and 39 times each, according to a court official. An unspecified number were also sentenced to two years in prison in Charakar, the provincial capital. 

The lashings come a day after the execution of a man accused of murder in the western part of the country, in what was the first officially confirmed public execution since the Taliban took control of the country in August 2021. 

Afghanistan’s Taliban, who seized power in August 2021, have implemented increasingly hardline policies over the past few months. 

These include preventing women from attending school and universities, which, along with public executions and lashings, are reminders of the Taliban’s previous 1996-2001 rule, when harsh punishments such as stoning and execution were commonplace.