Patented is an absorbent article with a front and rear part surrounding a crotch part. The article includes an absorbent body that is enclosed between an outer, liquid-impermeable casing sheet and an inner, liquid-permeable casing sheet. This latter sheet lies proximal to a wearer’s body when in use. The article includes, on opposite sides of a longitudinal symmetry axis, flexible, longitudinally extending flaps. The flaps are connected to the inner casing sheet along a longitudinal edge and extend from the connected longitudinal edge in toward the longitudinal symmetry axis of the article. The flaps are connected together in the crotch part and the flaps’ width between the longitudinal edge and a free longitudinal edge is greatest in the crotch part and decreases progressively from the crotch part toward the front and rear parts. The flaps taper toward the front and rear parts from the place at which they are connected so that the free longitudinal edges approach each other closely at the place and diverge from each other longitudinally at the free longitudinal edges in opposing directions away from the place when the absorbent article is flattened.