Afghan Taliban leader dismisses foreign ‘threats’ after ICC warrant

KABUL: Afghanistan’s supreme leader has said the Taliban will not be intimidated by “threats” in a speech given days after the International Criminal Court prosecutor requested a warrant for his arrest over the persecution of women in the country.
“Whether Westerners or Easterners, how could we believe them and not almighty God’s promises! How can we allow ourselves to be affected by their threats!” Hibatullah Akhundzada said in a recording of a speech shared with journalists on Tuesday.
The address was given at a graduation ceremony for religious scholars in southern Kandahar province on Monday, said the governor’s spokesman, Mahmood Azzam.
The reclusive Taliban leader, who rules by decree from Kandahar, has made only a handful of appearances since inheriting the Islamist movement’s leadership, with only audio recordings released of his rare speeches given in closed settings.
Taliban members are “Muslims who stand for what is right and cannot be harmed by anybody. If anyone stands against them, from the West or East, nobody can harm them,” Akhundzada said.
Akhundzada did not reference specific countries, bodies or “threats,” but the speech came days after the ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said he was seeking arrest warrants for the Taliban supreme leader and chief justice over the persecution of women.
Since sweeping back to power in 2021 — ousting the Western-backed government and ending a 20-year insurgency — the Taliban authorities have implemented a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
They have imposed restrictions on women and girls the United Nations has characterised as “gender apartheid.”
Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from education.
Women have been ordered to cover their hair and faces and wear all-covering Islamic dress, have been barred from parks and stopped from working in government offices.
The Taliban government claims it secures Afghan women’s rights under sharia but many of its edicts are not followed in the rest of the Islamic world and have been condemned by Muslim leaders.