Afghanistan's supreme leader calls for international recognition

Afghanistan's supreme leader called for the international community to recognise the Taliban government, saying that the world had become a small village and proper diplomatic relations would help solve the country's problems.

No nation has recognized the regime installed by the Taliban after they seized power in August and introduced a hardline Islamist rule that is increasingly excluding women from public life.

In a written message ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada did not mention international sticking points - including reopening secondary schools for girls.

The world has turned into a small village, Akhundzada said, who has not been seen in public for years and lives reclusively in Kandahar, the Taliban's spiritual heartland, the first to address our problems formally and within diplomatic norms and principles.

Afghanistan has a role in world peace and stability. According to this need, the world should recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. His message came after the country was rocked by a series of bomb blasts - some claimed by the jihadist Islamic State group and targeting the minority Shiite Hazara community.

Akhundzada said there was no mention of insecurity, but he said that the country had been able to build a strong Islamic and national army and a strong intelligence organisation. Many in the international community want humanitarian aid and recognition to be linked to the restoration of women's rights.

Hundreds of thousands of women lost their government jobs after the Taliban took over, and they have been barred from leaving the country or even travelling between cities unless they are accompanied by a male relative.

In March, the Taliban shut down all secondary schools for girls just hours after allowing them to reopen for the first time since they took power.

Several Taliban officials said the ban was personally ordered by Akhundzada.

Akhundzada's message did not touch on girls' schools, but he did say that authorities were opening new centres and madrassas for both religious and modern education. We respect and are committed to all the sharia rights of men and women in Afghanistan. He said that it is not possible to use this humanitarian and emotional issue as a tool for political purposes.

He said that people should be willing to embrace the Taliban ideals and not be forced.

He said that the relevant authorities should invite people towards sharia with wisdom and not extremism in this regard.

He said that the government was committed to freedom of speech based on Islamic values, although hundreds of news outlets closed, public broadcasts of music banned, and movies and TV dramas featuring women taken off air.

Akhundzada, believed to be in his 70s, has been the spiritual leader of the hardline Islamist movement since 2016 but has remained in the shadows despite the Taliban enjoying largely uncontested power.

His absence from public life has fuelled speculation that he may be dead and his edicts are the product of a committee.

In October, the Taliban released an audio recording they said was him addressing a madrassa in Kandahar.