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 to death in public, the radical group's Supreme Leader announced as he declared war against Western democracy.

Addressing Western officials in a voice message broadcast on state TV Saturday, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada called the Western human rights defenders 'representatives of the devil'.

'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,' he told the West in his harshest comments since taking over Afghanistan in 2021.

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

'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 added.

Horrifying footage of screaming Afghan woman cowering as she is stoned to death by Taliban

'You are treating women like animals, are these your rights?'

Afghanistan's state TV, now controlled by the Taliban, airs voice messages claiming to be from Akhundzada, who has never been seen in public.

In a further affront to international advocacy for women's rights, Akhundzada criticised the calls for such rights as contradictory to the Taliban's interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

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

'They are against Sharia and clerics' opinions, the clerics who toppled Western democracy,' he asserted.

'One is God's league and another one is the devil's and we are on God's side,' he claimed.

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

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

Akhundzada has called the Taliban foot soldiers to be resilient in opposing women's rights and said the war against Western democracy and values will continue for decades to come.

'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.

'Taking over Kabul did not mean we would now sit in offices and drink tea.

'It did not finish (when you left), we will now bring Sharia into action on this land,' he warned.

Footage allegedly from 2015 shows the Taliban stoning a women to death, six years before their return to power in Afghanistan

Akhundzada has called the Taliban foot soldiers to be resilient in opposing women's rights and said the war against Western democracy and values will continue for decades to come

He criticised Western human rights values and women's freedoms, saying Taliban religious scholars and clerics would persistently resist the West and its form of democracy in Afghanistan.

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

Naseer Faiq, Charge d'Affaires of Afghanistan to the United Nations, said that deciding the fate of the Afghans without their consent 'is not acceptable'.

'At what cost? For over two decades, under this slogan, thousands of innocent Afghans, including brainwashed Taliban, have been killed, the country destroyed, millions forced to migrate, and Afghanistan plunged into a deep crisis,' he said in a post on X, referring to Akhundzada's comments

'Isn't that enough? Profiting from the Afghan people's blood is unacceptable and forbidden in Islam,' he added.

The Taliban regained power in August 2021, following the collapse of the internationally supported government and the withdrawal of all US-led Western troops after nearly 20 years of involvement in the Afghan war.

Illustrative image shows an alleged murderer being executed before a crowd in Kabul in 1998

Akhundzada has halted girls' education in Afghanistan beyond the sixth grade and imposed growing restrictions on women's participation in public and private workplaces, including barring them from employment with the United Nations and other aid organisations.

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

The Taliban leader justifies these measures, asserting that they are following Afghan culture and Islamic principles.

Since leaders of the impoverished country with one of the world's most oppressed people seized power by force, Afghanistan's economy has collapsed and pushed millions into poverty.