Afghan Women's Lives at Risk as Taliban Declares Stoning for Adultery: Report

New Delhi: 'Women in Afghanistan will be stoned to death for adultery', the Taliban has reportedly announced. If reports are to be believed, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Supreme Leader of the Taliban, last Saturday declared through a voice message broadcast on state TV that the Taliban would resume publicly stoning women to death.

In a video accessed by the Telegraph, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada underlined that the women's rights advocated by the international community were incompatible with the Taliban's interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

"You say it's a violation of women's rights when we stone them to death. But we will soon implement the punishment for adultery. We will flog women in public. We will stone them to death in public," he reportedly said in the voice message. 

"The Taliban's work did not end with the takeover of Kabul, it has only just begun," Akhundzada added.F

For the unversed, Afghan women have encountered significant hurdles since the Taliban regained control in 2021. They've been deprived of fundamental rights such as education, employment, and participation in public life.

According to a UN report, the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan has been described as the "worst globally." The policies implemented by the Taliban government, rooted in their strict interpretation of Islam, have led to conditions that resemble “gender apartheid.”