Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada warned God would severely punish Afghans who are ungrateful for Islamic rule in the country, according to a statement released Friday marking the fourth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power.
The Taliban seized Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, as the US and NATO withdrew their forces at the end of a two-decade war.
Since then, they have imposed their interpretation of Islamic law on daily life, including sweeping restrictions on women and girls, based on edicts from their leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Akhundzada, who is seldom seen in public, said in a statement that Afghans had endured hardships and made sacrifices for almost 50 years so that Islamic law, or Sharia, could be established. Sharia had saved people from “corruption, oppression, usurpation, drugs, theft, robbery, and plunder.”
His statement was shared on the social platform X by the Taliban’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid.
“These are great divine blessings that our people should not forget and, during the commemoration of Victory Day (August 15), express great gratitude to Allah Almighty so that the blessings will increase,” said Akhundzada. “If, against God’s will, we fail to express gratitude for blessings and are ungrateful for them, we will be subjected to the severe punishment of Allah Almighty.”
He also instructed the Cabinet and ministers to drop the word “acting” from their job titles, signifying the permanence of a Taliban administration in Afghanistan and the lack of challengers to their rule.
On Wednesday, at a Cabinet meeting in Kandahar, Akhundzada said the stability of the Taliban government lay in the acquisition of religious knowledge.
He urged the promotion of religious awareness, the discouragement of immoral conduct, the protection of citizens from harmful ideologies, and the instruction of Afghans in matters of faith and creed, according to a statement from another government spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat.
Akhundzada ordered the Kabul Municipality to build more mosques, and there was a general focus on identifying means to “further consolidate and fortify” the Islamic government, said Fitrat.
The country is gripped by a humanitarian crisis made worse by climate change, millions of Afghans expelled from Iran and Pakistan, and a sharp drop in donor funding.
This year’s anniversary celebrations are more muted than last year’s, when the Taliban staged a military parade at a US airbase.
Officials have planned aerial floral showers and a sports display in the capital, Kabul. Cabinet members gave speeches earlier Friday listing the administration’s achievements and highlighting diplomatic progress.
Rights groups, foreign governments, and the UN have condemned the Taliban for their treatment of women and girls, who remain barred from education beyond sixth grade, many jobs, and most public spaces.
Some venues for the official anniversary celebrations are off-limits to females because they are forbidden from entering parks and other recreational areas.
Members of the United Afghan Women’s Movement for Freedom staged an indoor protest on Friday in northeast Takhar province against Taliban rule.
“This day marked the beginning of a black domination that excluded women from work, education, and social life,” the movement said in a statement shared with The Associated Press. “We, the protesting women, remember this day not as a memory, but as an open wound of history, a wound that has not yet healed. The fall of Afghanistan was not the fall of our will. We stand, even in the darkness.”
There was also an indoor protest in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
Afghan women held up signs that said “Forgiving the Taliban is an act of enmity against humanity” and “August 15th is a dark day.”
The women were fully veiled, except for their eyes, in the photographs.
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