The Taliban’s Supreme Leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, has pledged to reinstate more Islamic laws, including public stoning and public floggings as punishment for adultery. “You say it’s a violation of women’s rights when we stone them to death,” said Akhundzada, adding: “But we will soon implement the punishment for adultery. We will flog women in public. We will stone them to death in public.”
Despite promises of a more moderate regime after taking control of Kabul in August 2021, the Taliban has reinstated many of the harsh punishments it instituted under its previous rule during the late 1990s. The Supreme Leader’s comments directly challenged Western conceptions of women’s rights. “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 in one of the state television messages.
He argued the Taliban defends human rights as “God’s representatives,” in contrast to Western societies that he equated as being “the devil’s.” His words face considerable backlash, including strong criticisms from the United Nations, which has called for an end to public executions, lashings, and stoning in Afghanistan.
Akhundzada, who remains largely hidden from the public eye, apart from a few old portraits, reportedly operates from the Taliban’s stronghold in Kandahar. In his newest public statements, the Islamist leader continued to emphasize the tenacity of the Taliban in their war against Western influence.