Afghanistan's women have faced numerous challenges since the Taliban returned to power
The Taliban has announced that the women in Afghanistan will be stoned to death for adultery, a report has said.
Taliban's Supreme Leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada made the announcement - that it is resuming publicly stoning women to death - in a voice message broadcast on state TV last Saturday, reported the Telegraph.
In a video that has been accessed by the Telegraph, Akhundzada said that the women's rights that the international community had been advocating for were against the Taliban's interpretation of Islamic Sharia.
"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 said.
"The Taliban's work did not end with the takeover of Kabul, it has only just begun," Akhundzada added.
Afghanistan's women have faced numerous challenges since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Girls and women in the war-torn country have no access to education, employment and public spaces.
Only one month after returning to power, the Taliban authorities banned girls from attending secondary school, before closing university doors to them in December 2022 and then heavily restricting their participation in the workforce.
Conditions for women and girls in Afghanistan are the "worst globally," a UN report said, saying that the Taliban government's policies -- which are based on their strict interpretation of Islam -- could amount to a "gender apartheid."
For many families, the only path forward for their daughters is marriage, "regardless of their consent," the AFP said quoting a young student.
"Depression is widespread. The rate of suicide for girls has gone up a lot in the last two years. It is tragic," she told the news agency.