‘It’s our system’: Taliban leader hits out at foreign demands on Afghan regime

Akhundzada’s speech made no mention of women and girls, who the UN says are facing a ‘desperate situation’. Photograph: Afghan Taliban/AFP/Getty Images

The Taliban’s reclusive emir has lashed out at foreign demands on his government, as the UN rights chief called for an end to “systematic oppression” of women in the country.

The group’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, made a rare public speech to thousands of clerics at an all-male gathering to discuss Afghanistan’s future.