The leader of the Islamic Emirate in an audio recording attributed to him, said that the rights of women have been ensured within an Islamic structure compared to before.

According to him, there was no attention to the rights of women in the previous governments.

“We have issued a 6 principle decree regarding women’s rights… the previous governments have not provided the rights of women. We said don’t marry women by force, don’t violate Mahr, don’t force women for Nikah, don’t marry a widow by force. Give women the heritage,” Shiekh Hibatullah Akhundzada said.

Speaking at a gathering of the Ulema in Kandahar, he said that the Islamic Emirate’s struggle against the western countries has not ended and that the Sharia hudud (an Islamic method of punishment) will become enforceable.

“Tomorrow, we will implement hudud and the women will be stoned in public. Tomorrow, we will implement hudud and will lash [people] in public. All of these are in contrast with democracy. For each of these, you will need to fight and struggle,” he said.

However, the Islamic Emirate’s leader once again did not mention any remark regarding the education of girls.

Around 7 months ago, an audio message of the Islamic Emirate’s leader was released, in which he mentioned a desire for good political and economic relations with the world, particularly Islamic countries.

He also stressed that the Islamic Emirate doesn’t interfere in the internal affairs of any country and that it will not allow other countries to interfere in Afghanistan’s affairs.