On Wednesday, November 23, the Taliban carried out public flogging on 14 people, including three women, who were found guilty of “moral crimes”.

The “criminals” were taken to a football stadium in the eastern Logar province and were publicly thrashed as a punishment for their sins “including adultery, robbery and gay sex,” said a Taliban official to the BBC. The Islamist group confirmed the conviction of “14 people, including three women, who were lashed, and attended by scholars, authorities, and people” in a public statement on Twitter.

Omar Mansoor Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman for the Logar province said that the three women were let go after the public punishment. Some of the punished men were jailed, but it is not confirmed how many. The men and women received between 21 and 39 lashes each, with the maximum number a person can receive being 39, according to another Taliban official.

This comes a week after another flogging was done by the Taliban this month, with a report that 19 people were punished in a similar way in the northern Takhar province. This follows the extremist group’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, confirming last week that they will be “implementing the Sharia Law” in full force across Afghanistan.

This crowd has gathered in a stadium in Afghanistan’s Logar province, not for a game but to watch public execution by the Taliban. Stadiums previously home to sports events are now used for hanging, shooting, stoning, amputation, and flogging by the Taliban. pic.twitter.com/YMOYWisaVj

— Habib Khan (@HabibKhanT) November 24, 2022

Sharia is Islam’s legal system derived from the Quran, Islam’s holy book, as well as the Sunnah and Hadith which are the deeds and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. In Arabic, Sharia literally means “the clear, well-trodden path to water” and in theory, the Sharia Laws should explain how Muslims should morally live their lives according to God’s wishes. In the hands of the Taliban, the interpretation of the Islamic law is seen to be very extreme and aggressive, with punishments including public executions, amputations and stoning. At the time of writing, the political group has not disclosed the exact crimes and corresponding punishments.

These recent events are reminiscent of the Taliban’s actions from between 1996-2001 when they were actively criticised for regularly carrying out public punishments such as flogging, stoning, and even going as far as hosting public executions at the national stadium in Kabul. Many are disappointed to see the empty promises of a “softer version” of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, and many citizens are fearful for their safety.

Of the 14 people recently punished by flogging in Afghanistan, it remains unclear how many were sentenced by the Taliban for “gay sex”. Even so, it is evident that LGBTQ+ rights are under threat in the country, and these issues are highlighted by documentary director Dan Hall who interviewed a large number of English-speaking queer Afghans in his production Gay Under the Taliban.

When asked by PinkNews about the documentary and what he’d like for people to take away from it, he responded: “I’d like people to stop going around saying that people are queer because of a choice. Do they think that people would choose to be hunted down, that they would choose to be r*ped? It’s just ignorant nonsense.”