Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban, has made alarming declarations promising harsh punishments for women in public, reiterating their opposition to Western democratic values.
According to The Telegraph, Akhundzada’s message, aired on state television, directly addressed Western concerns about women’s rights violations, dismissing them as inconsequential.
He asserted, “You call it a violation of women’s rights when we stone them to death. But we will soon enforce punishment for adultery. We will publicly flog women. We will publicly stone them to death.”
These statements, among his harshest since the Taliban regained control of Kabul in August 2021, come via Afghanistan’s state TV, now under Taliban control. Akhundzada is believed to be in southern Kandahar, the Taliban’s stronghold.
Akhundzada argued that women’s rights advocated by the international community clash with the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law. He stated, “Do women want the rights that Westerners talk about? They go against Sharia and clerical opinions, the clerics who ousted Western democracy.”
Akhundzada urged Taliban fighters to persistently oppose women’s rights, emphasizing their resilience. “I told the Mujahedin that we fought against you for 20 years, and we will fight against you for 20 and even more years,” he declared.