Haibatullah Akhunzada calls on the international community to recognize the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan.
Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhunzada has called on the international community to recognize Afghanistan’s “Islamic Emirate” in a pre-Eid message without touching on girls’ education.
The Taliban-led government has yet to be recognized by any country since it returned to power last August, 20 years after it was ousted in a US-led invasion.
“Afghanistan has its role in world peace and stability. In accordance with this need, the world should recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” Akhunzada said in a written message ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Akhunzada said the world had become a “small village” and proper diplomatic relations would help solve the country’s problems.
In January, Afghanistan’s interim prime minister, Hasan Akhund, called on the international community to officially recognize the “Islamic Emirate” like the Taliban have been trying to end diplomatic isolation.
The Taliban had fiance women’s rights and media freedom a day after she returned to power following the collapse of President Ashraf Ghani’s Western-backed government.
series of explosions
But the group has faced criticism for reintroducing the hard-line rule that increasingly excludes women from public life. He has also been accused of human rights violations.
Akhunzada did not mention international demands, including the reopening of secondary schools for girls and an inclusive government. Instead, she said recognition must come first “so that we can address our issues formally and within diplomatic norms and principles.”
The United States, along with Western nations, has frozen billions of dollars in Afghan bank assets, and cutting off aid has caused the aid-dependent economy to nearly collapse. More than 90 percent of Afghans face food shortages.
Akhunzada’s Eid message comes as the country has been rocked by a series of bomb blasts, the latest attack on the minority Shiite Hazara community claimed by the ISIL (ISIS) group.
At least nine people were killed Thursday in an attack on Shiite Muslims in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Akhunzada did not mention insecurity, but said the country had been able to build “a strong Islamic and national army” as well as “a strong intelligence organization.”
Restoration of women’s rights.
Many in the international community want humanitarian aid and recognition to be linked to the restoration of women’s rights.
Tens of thousands of women lost their government jobs after the Taliban takeover, and have also been barred from leaving the country, or even traveling between cities, unless accompanied by a male relative.
In March, the Taliban sparked global outrage by close all girls’ high schools just hours after allowing them to reopen for the first time since they took power.
Akhunzada said authorities were opening new centers and madrasas for both “religious and modern education.”
“We respect and are committed to all Sharia rights of men and women in Afghanistan… please do not use this humanitarian and emotional issue as a tool for political ends,” he said.
The Taliban supreme leader, based in the eastern city of Kandahar, also said the government was committed to freedom of expression in line with “Islamic values”, even though hundreds of media outlets were shut down, public broadcasts of music and movies and television. dramas starring women taken off the air.
Akhunzada, believed to be 70 years old, has been the spiritual leader of the Taliban since 2016. He accomplished Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, who was killed in a US drone strike inside Pakistan.