close
Fox News senior strategic analyst Gen. Jack Keane (Ret.) on how the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal contributed to the ISIS resurgence and the need to allow Israel to continue fighting Hamas.
Join Fox News for access to this content Plus special access to select articles and other premium content with your account – free of charge. Please enter a valid email address. By entering your email and pushing continue, you are agreeing to Fox News’ Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which includes our Notice of Financial Incentive. To access the content, check your email and follow the instructions provided. Having trouble? Click here.
In a direct message to Western democracies, the Taliban’s supreme leader over the weekend said his government would officially re-implement the practice of stoning women to death for adultery.
“You say it’s a violation of women’s rights when we stone them to death,” Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada said in a voice message aired on Taliban-controlled state media, according to a translation by The Telegraph.
“But we will soon implement the punishment for adultery,” he said. “We will flog women in public. We will stone them to death in public.”
Taliban security personnel stand guard as an Afghan woman walks through a market in the Baharak district of Badakhshan province on Feb. 26, 2024. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)
LIFE UNDER TALIBAN RULE ONE YEAR LATER: WOMEN AND GIRLS STRUGGLE UNDER OPPRESSIVE POLICIES
The comments are the strongest confirmation of the Taliban’s intent to re-implement the harsh policies from its previous rule in the 1990s, though reports have shown that it never fully ceased its extreme abuse against women, including in a deadly 2015 video that depicted a 19-year-old woman crammed into a hole surrounded by men who threw stones at her head with increasing force.
The execution was reportedly carried out after the woman allegedly had premarital sex with her fiancé, who in turn received lashes, reported Radio Free Europe.
Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 capital punishments and public executions have resumed, though it is unclear if any women have yet to be stoned under the new Taliban-run state.
According to a U.N. report in May 2023, 175 individuals had been sentenced to various punishments and 37 people had been sentenced to stoning. Over 100 people had been sentenced to “crimes against God” such as lashings, while another four had been sentenced to having walls knocked down on them.
Women are watched as they stand in a queue outside the passport office in Herat on Aug. 26, 2023. (Mohsen Karimi/AFP via Getty Images)
IN THE ROOM WITH THE TALIBAN: WORDS FROM ONE OF THE ONLY FEMALE REPORTERS LEFT IN AFGHANISTAN
It is unclear how many of those sentenced are women or when the punishments will be carried out.
The United Nations and the international community have repeatedly called on the Taliban to respect human rights, particularly women’s rights, which have been stripped since the terrorist group’s takeover.
Akhundzada responded to international condemnation over the weekend and said, “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.”
The mullah said women’s rights were against the Taliban’s extreme interpretation of Islam.
“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.
The Taliban celebrate their first anniversary of retaking Afghanistan after the U.S. troops withdrew. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Akhundzada vowed to continue opposing democratic values and women’s rights.
“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. “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.”
Caitlin McFall is a Reporter at Fox News Digital covering Politics, U.S. and World news.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., resigned from the House last week. That is final. The…
Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said on a podcast Friday he will not be joining…
close Video Former federal prosecutor calls latest Diddy court claims 'weak' Sex trafficking suspect Sean…
close Video NYC prosecutes Daniel Penny, allows career criminals to run free Former NYPD lieutenant…
close Video Fox News Flash top headlines for November 22 Fox News Flash top headlines…
close Video Fox News Flash top headlines for November 21 Fox News Flash top headlines…