Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s leader, vowed to reimplement the practice of stoning women.
In a message aired on Taliban-controlled state media, Akhundzada said, according to The Telegraph, “You say it’s a violation of women’s rights when we stone them to death,” adding, “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,” he stated, referring to Western nations.
“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.”
“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 emphasized. “It did finish after we took over Kabul. No, we will now bring Sharia into action.”
American Faith reported that the Taliban has continued public executions despite international calls to end the activity.
Amnesty International’s interim Deputy Regional Director for South Asia Livia Saccardi issued a statement on recent executions, saying, “We oppose all executions as a violation of the right to life. The Taliban has been repeatedly carrying them out publicly which is a gross affront to human dignity as well as a violation of international laws and standards and cannot be tolerated.”
“It’s high time that the international community and the UN up the pressure on the blatant human rights violations by the Taliban and help ensure that international safeguards are respected in Afghanistan,” Saccardi added.
United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the “public nature of execution is extremely heinous, and we continue to stand against the use of the death penalty.”
