The Taliban’s Supreme Leader has said that women will be stoned to death in public, vowing that the terror group will continue its fight against Western democracy.
In a voice message aired on state television over the weekend addressing Western officials, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada said that the Taliban would begin stoning women who had committed adultery.
“You say it’s a violation of women’s rights when we stone them to death,” Akhundzada said. “But we will soon implement the punishment for adultery. We will flog women in public. We will stone them to death in public,”
“These are all against your democracy but we will continue doing it. We both say we defend human rights – we do it as God’s representative and you as the devil’s,” Akhundzada told Afghanistan’s state TV, which is now under Taliban control.
The Islamic scholar and cleric also blasted the West’s interpretation of women’s rights, while vowing to bring Sharia law into action.
“Do women want the rights that Westerners are talking about? They are against Sharia and clerics’ opinions, the clerics who toppled Western democracy,” he said.
“I told the Mujahedin that we tell the Westerners that we fought against you for 20 years and we will fight 20 and even more years against you,” he said, emphasising the need for resilience in opposing women’s rights among Taliban foot soldiers.
“It did not finish [when you left]. It does not mean we would now just sit and drink tea. We will bring Sharia to this land,” he added. “It did finish after we took over Kabul. No, we will now bring Sharia into action.”
The Taliban grabbed power in the region in August 2021, after the Biden administration pulled out of the war in Afghanistan, a decision made by President Joe Biden in April 2021.
In a statement at the time, the Biden administration pledged to continue “ongoing efforts” in Afghanistan including reopening the airport for those seeking to leave, and the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
“The Taliban has made public commitments, broadcast on television and radio across Afghanistan, on safe passage for anyone wanting to leave, including those who worked alongside Americans. We don’t take them by their word alone but by their actions, and we have leverage to make sure those commitments are met,” the Biden administration said, saying the decision to withdraw troops was “designed to save American lives.”
As the Taliban seized power in Kabul, President Biden faced criticism as his plans for an orderly US withdrawal turned chaotic.
President Ashraf Ghani promptly fled the country, while Taliban members said they had been “victorious” in a statement broadcast live on Al Jazeera, as desperate locals flocked to the airport to try and leave the country.
Despite warnings that the Afghan government would crumble, Mr Biden accelerated the timetable he inherited from his predecessor Donald Trump, who criticised Biden over the crisis.
“He ran out of Afghanistan instead of following the plan our Administration left for him – a plan that protected our people and our property, and ensured the Taliban would never dream of taking our Embassy or providing a base for new attacks against America,” Mr Trump said.
While Joe Biden promised that the country would “never again…become a terrorist safe haven,” the Taliban’s return has made Afghanistan a hotspot for global jihadis, analysts say.
ISIS-K, the group blamed for the Moscow attack last week, gained strength after the US withdrawal, commentators have said, amid a rise in international terrorist threats linked to Afghanistan.
Western officials have blamed Islamic State-Khorasan Province, an Afghan-based affiliate of ISIS, for last week’s attack on a concert hall in Moscow that killed at least 137 people. Prior to the attack, head of the US Central Command, Michael Kurilla, warned that the “risk of an attack emanating from Afghanistan is increasing,” as he singled out the Isis-K group. The US had reportedly warned of a threat to Russia from Islamic extremists.
Isis-K is a bitter enemy of the Taliban, who has fought a counterinsurgency campaign against the group coming to power – however analysts have said that the jihadist organisation has gained significant strength since the US withdrawal in the summer of 2021, and has since increased its international activity.
It was also linked to bombings which took place in Iran in January, killing almost 100 people, and an attack on a Church in Turkey in the same month. Another planned attack on Sweden’s parliament, which was foiled last week, may also have been directed from Afghanistan, according to authorities.