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Afghanistan: Supreme Taliban leader tells world not to ‘interfere’ in Afghan affairs

Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada today called on the world to stop “meddling” in Afghan affairs, noting that the implementation of Islamic law is the key to success for his country.

Akhundzada, who has never been filmed or photographed in public since the Islamist movement seized power in August and lives in seclusion in the southern city of Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual center, spoke in Kabul to a gathering of religious leaders and elders of of Afghanistan’s tribes, which the Taliban convened to consolidate their power.

“They tell us: ‘Why don’t you do this, why don’t you do that? Why does the world interfere in our affairs? We will not take orders from anyone in the world. We worship only Almighty Allah,'” he said in an hour-long speech, which was broadcast by the state radio network.

More than 3,000 religious and tribal leaders have been meeting since Thursday in the Afghan capital for a major three-day council. The first speeches mainly called for unity in support of the Taliban.

In the mass media, which was not allowed access to the assembly, there had been speculation for days about Akhundzada’s possible participation in it. To date, only his recorded statements have been made public since last August, without it being possible to verify their authenticity from an independent source.

Although he stays out of the public eye, the mullah, who is an expert on judicial and religious matters and is believed to be in his 70s, leads the Islamist movement with an iron fist, which he took over in 2016, analysts say, and bears the title of “Commander of the Faithful”.

He also opined that the Taliban’s success will depend on their ability to defeat “corruption, selfishness, tyranny, nationalism and nepotism” that have characterized, according to him, the successive governments of these past two decades. in power in Afghanistan, after the Taliban’s previous stint in power from 1996 to 2001.

– No woman –

To achieve this, “the time has now come to implement Sharia (Islamic law),” he stressed, asking the ulema to guide the authorities on the matter.

“If there is Sharia, we have security, freedom, an Islamic system and everything we need,” he stressed.

The gathering, the largest since the Taliban retook power, comes a week after a devastating earthquake hit the country’s southeast, killing more than 1,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.

No woman has been allowed to take part in this assembly. The Taliban deemed their presence unnecessary as they are represented by their male relatives.

A Taliban source told AFP earlier this week that participants would be allowed to criticize the Islamist movement and that thorny issues such as girls’ education, a topic of debate within the movement as well, would be on the assembly’s agenda for talks.

In late March, the Taliban banned girls from secondary education, closing schools just hours after their long-announced reopening. The order for this unexpected reversal was given by Akhundzada himself, according to several sources within the Islamist movement.

The Taliban’s supreme leader did not address the issue in his speech, focusing mainly on his call to the faithful to respect Islamic principles.

“endure trials”

The Taliban have largely reverted to the ultra-strict interpretation of Islam that marked their first stint in power, greatly restricting women’s rights.

The Islamist movement has almost completely barred them from public sector jobs, restricted their right to free movement and denied girls access to secondary education. Women can also no longer go out in public without wearing a burqa.

In addition, the Taliban banned non-religious music, the appearance of faces in advertisements, the broadcast on television of films or series showing women not wearing the Islamic headscarf, and required men to wear traditional clothing and grow beards.

Akhundzada today warned his audience that non-Muslim nations will never accept an authentically Islamic state and therefore asked them to be prepared to undergo many trials.

“There can be no reconciliation between Islam and the kafirs (infidels). This has never happened, not in the past and not now,” he ruled.

“You must struggle, endure the trials (…) Today’s world will not easily accept that you implement the Islamic system and will not allow you to do so,” he stressed.

The Taliban had taken heavy security measures to guard their gathering. However, yesterday two armed men managed to get close to where it was being held, at the Kabul Polytechnic University, before they were shot.

SOURCE: APE-ME

Source: Capital

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