Whatever happened to the Taliban threat: 'We will flog the women'?
NPR revisits its past reporting on the Taliban's use of public corporal punishment, including flogging and stoning, for offenses like educating girls or adultery. The article confirms an increase in these violent punishments, citing statements from the Taliban's supreme leader and reports from human rights organizations and the U.N. Thousands of cases have been documented, with 2025 seeing more public floggings than all previous years combined.
Why it matters
This article highlights the severe human rights abuses and the deteriorating situation for women and citizens under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, demonstrating a clear return to harsh, religiously-motivated punishments and a disregard for international human rights standards.
We have previously reported on the Taliban's position that public flogging (as well as stoning) are appropriate corporal punishment if they believe a citizen has violated certain precepts –- enabling girls to be educated despite the ban on secondary education for females, for example, or engaging in an adulterous relationship. Have Taliban authorities been employing these methods?
We're revisiting some of our past global health and development stories to see "Whatever happened to ..."
In March 2024, NPR reported on a statement issued by the Taliban's usually elusive supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada announcing a return to a type of punishment in its justice system. "We will flog the women ... we will stone them to death in public [for crimes]," he said in an audio message.
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