Taliban vow to start stoning women to death in public for adultery in Afghanistan, as supreme leader blasts the West’s support for women’s rights

The Taliban will soon start stoning women in public, the radical group’s Supreme Leader announced as he declared war on Western democracy.

Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada addressed Western officials in a voice message broadcast on state television on Saturday, calling Western human rights defenders “representatives of the devil.”

“You say it is a violation of women’s rights if we stone them to death. But we will soon implement the punishment for adultery,” he told the West in his harshest remarks since taking over Afghanistan in 2021.

‘We will flog women in public. We will stone them to death in public,” he announced.

“This is all against your democracy, but we will continue with it.

“We both say we defend human rights – we do it as God’s representative and you as the devil’s,” he added.

“You treat women like animals, are those your rights?”

Afghan state television, now controlled by the Taliban, broadcasts voice messages claiming to be from Akhundzada, who has never been seen in public.

In a further insult to international advocacy for women’s rights, Akhundzada criticized the call for such rights as contradicting the Taliban’s interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

‘Do women want the rights that Westerners are talking about?

“They are against Sharia law and the views of clerics, the clerics who overthrew Western democracy,” he claimed.

“One is God’s league and the other is the devil’s, and we are on God’s side,” he claimed.

The Taliban, despite initial promises of a more moderate rule, began publicly carrying out harsh punishments shortly after coming to power.

The sentences are similar to those during their previous rule in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

Akhundzada has called on Taliban foot soldiers to be resilient in opposing women’s rights, saying the war against Western democracy and values ​​will continue for decades.

“I told the Mujahedin that we are telling the Westerners that we have been fighting you for 20 years and we will fight you for 20 years and even more,” he said.

‘The takeover of Kabul did not mean that we now sat in offices drinking tea.

“It was not over (when you left), we will now practice Sharia law in this country,” he warned.

He criticized Western human rights values ​​and women’s freedoms and said Taliban religious scholars and clerics would continue to oppose the West and its brand of democracy in Afghanistan.

His comments have sparked outrage among Afghans and prompted some to urge the international community to escalate pressure on the Taliban.

Naseer Faiq, Afghanistan’s chargé d’affaires at the United Nations, said deciding the fate of Afghans without their consent “is not acceptable.”

‘At what price? For more than two decades, under this slogan, thousands of innocent Afghans, including the brainwashed Taliban, have been murdered, the country has been devastated, millions have been forced to migrate and Afghanistan has plunged into deep crisis,” he said in a post on Achundzada’s comments

‘Is that not enough? Profiting from the blood of the Afghan people is unacceptable and forbidden in Islam,” he added.

The Taliban regained power in August 2021, following the collapse of the internationally backed government and the withdrawal of all US-led Western forces after nearly two decades of involvement in the war in Afghanistan.

Akhundzada has halted girls’ education in Afghanistan after the sixth grade and imposed increasing restrictions on women’s participation in public and private workplaces, including banning them from employment with the United Nations and other aid agencies.

Women are prohibited from taking long car and plane trips without a male relative accompanying them, and are prohibited from visiting public places such as parks, gyms and bathhouses.

The Taliban leader justifies these measures, claiming that they follow Afghan culture and Islamic principles.

Since the leaders of the impoverished country with one of the most oppressed peoples in the world seized power by force, Afghanistan’s economy has collapsed and millions of people have been plunged into poverty.