Amir al-Mu'minin Mullah Mawlawi Sheikh al-Hadith Hibatullah Akhundzada
هبت الله اخندزاده
3rd Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
Incumbent
Assumed office (as head of state of Afghanistan)[a] 15 August 2021
Prime Minister	Hasan Akhund (acting)
Preceded by	Ashraf Ghani (as President)
Assumed office 25 May 2016
Deputy	Sirajuddin Haqqani Mohammad Yaqoob Abdul Ghani Baradar
Preceded by	Akhtar Mansour
First Deputy Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan[5]
In office 29 July 2015 – 21 May 2016
Leader	Akhtar Mansour
Preceded by	Akhtar Mansour
Succeeded by	Sirajuddin Haqqani[6]
2nd Chief Justice of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
In office c. 2001 – 21 May 2016
Leader	Mohammed Omar Akhtar Mansoor
Preceded by	Noor Mohammad Saqib
Succeeded by	Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai
Justice on the Supreme Court of Afghanistan
In office c. 1996 – c. 2001
Prime Minister	Mohammad Rabbani Abdul Kabir
Leader	Mullah Omar
Chief Justice of the Kandahar Appellate Court
In office c. 1995 – c. 2001
Prime Minister	Mohammad Rabbani Abdul Kabir
Leader	Mullah Omar
Personal details
Born	c. 1961 – c. 1969 (age 52–61) Panjwayi District, Kingdom of Afghanistan
Nationality	Afghan
Religion	Sunni Islam
Political affiliation	Taliban
Military service
Allegiance	Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
Branch/service	Afghan mujahideen (Before 1992) Islamic Army of Afghanistan (1996–2001)
Rank	Judicial officer
Commands	Justice on the Military Court for Kandahar Chief Justice of the Military Court for Eastern Nangarhar Chief Justice of the Supreme Military Court
Battles/wars	Soviet–Afghan War Afghan Civil War (1996–2001) War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)

Hibatullah Akhundzada^[b] (born c. 1961 – c. 1969^[8][9]) is an Afghan Islamic scholar, cleric, and jurist who is the 3rd and current leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban), serving since 2016. Since the 2021 fall of Kabul, this position has made him Afghanistan's de facto ruler and head of state. The Taliban call him the Amir al-Mu'minin (lit. 'Commander of the Faithful'), which was the title of his two predecessors.^[10] He is also known by the honorifics Mawlawi and Mullah.

Akhundzada is well known for his fatwas on Taliban matters. He served as the Islamic judge of the Sharia courts of the 1996–2001 Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Unlike many Taliban leaders, he is not of a militant background. He was elected as the leader of the Taliban in May 2016, following the assassination of the previous leader, Akhtar Mansour, in a drone strike.

Early life[edit]

Akhundzada was born in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar Province in the Kingdom of Afghanistan.^[11] A Pashtun, he belongs to the Nurzai tribe.^[12][11] His first name, Hibatullah, means "gift from God" in Arabic.^[12][11] His father, Muhammad Akhund, was a religious scholar and imam at the Malook mosque in Safid Rawan village.^[13] Not owning any land or orchards of their own, the family depended on what the congregation paid his father in cash or in a portion of their crops. The family migrated to Quetta in the Balochistan province of Pakistan after the Soviet invasion and Akhundzada studied at one of the madrassas (Islamic seminaries) there.^[14] In the 1980s, he was "involved in the Islamist resistance" to the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan.^[1]

Role in the Taliban[edit]

Early career[edit]

He joined the Taliban in 1994,^[12] and became one of its early members.^[15] After they gained control of Farah Province in 1995, he was part of the vice and virtue police there.^[14] Later, he was the head of the Taliban's military court in eastern Nangarhar Province and then the deputy head of the Supreme Court.^[1] He later moved to Kandahar where he was an instructor at the Jihadi Madrasa, a seminary that Taliban founding leader Mohammed Omar looked after.^[14]

After the Taliban government fell to the US-led invasion in 2001, Akhundzada became the head of the group's council of religious scholars.^[1] He was later appointed as Chief Justice of the Sharia Courts of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan^[12] and became an advisor to Mohammed Omar.^[16] Rather than a military commander, he has a reputation as a religious leader who was responsible for issuing most of the Taliban's fatwas and settling religious issues among members of the Taliban.^[17] Both Omar and Akhtar Mansour, his successor as supreme leader, consulted Akhundzada on matters of fatwa.^[18] Akhundzada was a senior member of the Taliban's Quetta Shura.^[17][19]

He was appointed as one of two deputy leaders of the Taliban under Mansour in 2015. He was the most visible face of the Taliban's top leadership, as Mansour mostly stayed out of public view and did not openly attend meetings for security reasons, and the other deputy, Sirajuddin Haqqani, was mostly involved in military affairs.^[18] Akhundzada put in place a system under which a commission would be formed under the shadow governor in every province that could investigate abusive commanders or fighters, according to Abdul Bari, a commander in Helmand Province.^[14]

Akhundzada was reportedly living in the Ghaus Abad area of Quetta in 2016 and leading up to ten madrassas in Balochistan.^[20][13]

As the Supreme Leader[edit]

Akhundzada was appointed as Taliban Supreme Leader on 25 May 2016, succeeding Mansour, who had been killed in a US drone strike.^[1] Two leading contenders for the role were Sirajuddin Haqqani, Mansour's other deputy, and Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of founding leader Mohammad Omar. Akhundzada's appointment surprised some, who saw him as the third ranked candidate, but a compromise choice to avoid resentment if either of the others was appointed.^[20] Taliban sources said that Mansour had designated Akhundzada as his successor in his will, though this may have been an invention to try to confer authority on his appointment.^[1] Yaqoob and Haqqani were appointed as Akhundzada's two deputies.^[21] Abdul Razaq Akhund and Abdul Sata Akhund pledged their support to Akhundzada in December 2016.^[22]

Yousef Ahmadi, the Taliban's main spokesmen for southern Afghanistan, said that Akhundzada's younger son Abdur Rahman Khalid had died carrying out a suicide attack on an Afghan military base in Gereshk in Helmand Province in July 2017.^[23][24] Taliban officials said that Akhundzada had been aware of his son's intention and approved of it.^[23] In 2019, under the leadership of Akhundzada, Taliban won the Battle of Darzab by defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's Khorasan branch.^[25]

In May 2021, Akhundzada called the Afghan people to unite for the development of an Islamic state once the United States forces withdraw.^[26] In August 2021, forces under his nominal command began a general offensive seeking to achieve a final victory in the war. During the leadership of Akhundzada, the United States troops withdrew, and the Taliban gained control of Kabul.^[16] On 18 August, it was announced that based on the general amnesty issued by Akhundzada, "it was decided to release political detainees from all prisons of Afghanistan".^[27] By the time, the Taliban has already taken control of key prisons across the country and freed thousands of inmates, including ISIL fighters, al-Qaeda members and senior Taliban figures.^[27][28]

With little known about Akhundzada and the lack of any photographs of him in the aftermath of the fall of Kabul, questions were raised whether he was alive and remained leader.^[29] There had been rumors in February 2021 that he was killed in an explosion in Pakistan, but this was dismissed by the Taliban.^[30] Media reports after the fall of Kabul suggested that he was in the custody of the Pakistani Army. However, on 21 August, the Taliban told The Sunday Guardian that Akhundzada was alive and based in Kandahar.^[31] On 8 September, Akhundzada issued a statement addressed to the interim government, telling it to uphold sharia in Afghanistan.^[32]

Assassination attempts[edit]

Two attempts have been made to assassinate Akhundzada.^[33] During a 2012 lecture by Akhundzada, in Quetta, a man stood among the students and pointed a pistol at Akhundzada from a close range, but the pistol jammed. Mullah Ibrahim, a student of Akhundzada, told The New York Times that "Taliban rushed to tackle" and restrain the attacker, before he could clear the jam; Akhundzada reportedly did not move during the incident, or the chaos that followed.^[14] The Taliban accused the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence agency, of the attempted shooting.^[14]

During the Friday prayer on 16 August 2019, a powerful blast tore through a grand mosque in Balochistan province in Pakistan, killing Akhundzada's brother Hafiz Ahmadullah and their father.^[34] Ahmadullah had succeeded Akhundzada as leader of the Khair-ul-Madarais Mosque, which had served as the main meeting place of the Quetta Shura, after Akhundzada was appointed as the Taliban emir.^[34] More of Akhundzada's relatives were later confirmed to have died in the blast.^[35] The High Council of Afghanistan Islamic Emirate, a breakaway faction of the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack, adding that the prime target was Akhundzada.^[36]

Role in the reinstated Islamic Emirate[edit]

It was revealed on 14 September 2021 that Akhundzada had not been seen in public since the Taliban seized control of Kabul, giving rise to speculation that he might be dead. The death of the Taliban's founding leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was previously concealed for two years.^[37]

On 3 December 2021, Akhundzada issued a decree that stipulated the rights of women under Sharia. It stated that women have a right to marital consent, and cannot be treated as property. It added that widows were allowed to maritally consent to new husbands, payment from her new husband during Nekah, and to inherit property equally among their family. The Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Information and Culture, and the Supreme Court were instructed to implement the decree and communicate it to the public.^[38]

Taliban officials said Akhundzada made a public appearance at the Darul Uloom Hakimah madrassa in Kandahar on 30 October 2021. No photos or videos were released but a ten-minute audio recording was shared by Taliban social media accounts,^[39] disproving rumours of his death.^[40]

On April 3 2022, Akhundzada signed a decree banning the cultivation of opium in Afghanistan, with any violators being treated "according to sharia law." The order and transportation of other narcotics was also banned.^[41]

Writings[edit]

• Mujahedino ta de Amir ul-Mumenin Larshowene (2017; lit. Instructions to the Mujahedeen from the Commander of the Faithful)^[42]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]