Dark anniversary

Taliban chief sounds off: “Implement Sharia law for others”

The Taliban want to impose the laws of Sharia on others.

(Bild: AFP/Wakil KOHSAR)

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan exactly three years ago. Since then, people's freedoms have been systematically curtailed. Sharia law and the Islamic system are becoming "stronger by the day", the terrorists' supreme leader has now said. 

On the third anniversary of the radical Islamic Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, their supreme leader described the implementation of Islamic law as a lifelong responsibility. "Serving the religion and ruling according to Sharia law is our lifelong responsibility," said Hibatullah Akhundzada on Wednesday at an air force base in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar on the occasion of the takeover on August 15, 2021.

"We will implement Allah's religion and Sharia for ourselves and others as long as we live," Akhundzada, who rarely appears in public, said in his speech, which was published on Wednesday evening by government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on the online service X.

Sharia law and the Islamic system were becoming "stronger by the day", the Taliban chief added.

Military parades for "holiday"
Following the collapse of the US-backed government in Kabul, the Taliban recaptured the Afghan capital on August 15, 2021. The anniversary is marked one day earlier in the Afghan calendar and was celebrated nationwide with military parades and gatherings.

The Taliban celebrate the day they seized power.

(Bild: AFP/Mohammad Faisal NAWEED)

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has condemned the Taliban's crimes against women in Afghanistan since then as the "most massive systematic human rights violations worldwide".

"Three years ago today, people in Afghanistan, especially women and girls, were torn from their lives," said Baerbock according to a statement from the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin.

Impressions of the Taliban parade:

Baerbock said, "Half of the country is no longer allowed to do what is part of normal life: work, go to the hospital or restaurant alone, sing, show your face on the street, go to school as a teenager, be a woman." The lives of women and girls in Afghanistan are like living in a "domestic prison". Under the current conditions, it is not possible for Afghanistan to return to the international community.

Taliban are not recognized
After years of Western military presence, the radical Islamic Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in August 2021 and proclaimed a so-called Islamic emirate.

Since then, they have been enforcing their strict interpretation of Islam with draconian laws and curtailing women's rights in particular. Internationally, the Taliban remain isolated; to date, no state has recognized the Islamist rulers as the formal government of Afghanistan.