Taliban affirms that stoning will be punishment for adulterers — especially women

The Taliban has a history of supporting the use of stoning as a punishment for "moral crimes" — reiterated in a statement this year by their supreme leader. Above: In 2015, Afghan Solidarity members gather in Kabul to protest Taliban militants who stoned an Afghan woman to death in the Taliban-controlled area outside Firozkoh, the capital of central Ghor province. She was accused of adultery. (Wakil Kohsar /AFP via Getty Images)

"We will flog the women ... we will stone them to death in public [for crimes]," said Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban's supreme leader, in an audio message issued on March 24.

Akhundzada – who hasn't been seen in public in a decade – reiterated the group's previous stance on public floggings and stonings, particularly against women.