Hibatullah Akhundzada

Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, also spelled Haibatullah Akhunzada, is an Afghan Deobandi Islamic scholar, cleric, and jurist who is the supreme leader of Afghanistan.

According to the then-director of the National Directorate of Security, Akhundzada was born c. 1959.

However, he is believed to be in his 70s.

A Pashtun, he belongs to the Nurzai tribe.

His first name, Hibatullah, means "gift from God" in Arabic.

His father, Muhammad Akhund, was a religious scholar and imam at the Malook mosque in Safid Rawan village.

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.

One of Akhundzada's sons was a suicide bomber.

The family migrated to Quetta in the Balochistan province of Pakistan after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979).

Akhundzada studied at one of the madrassas in Pakistan and earned the title "Sheikh al-Hadith".

In the 1980s, he was "involved in the Islamist resistance" to the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan.

According to the Taliban, he fought for Hezb-i Islami Khalis during this time.

In the early 1990s, as the Islamist insurgency was gaining ground in Afghanistan following the Soviet occupation, Akhundzada went back to his village in Kandahar Province.

Abdul Qayum, a 65-year-old villager, recalled that Akhundzada would have talks with visitors from "the city and from Pakistan."

He served as an Islamic judge of the Sharia courts of the 1996–2001 Taliban government.

After the United States invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, Akhundzada escaped to Pakistan and sought shelter in Quetta.

Because of his knowledge in Islamic law, he became the head of the Taliban's shadow justice system and the acclaimed trainer of a whole generation of Taliban militants who graduated through Quetta.

He has led the Taliban since 2016, and came to power with its victory over U.S.-backed forces in the 2001–2021 war.

A highly reclusive figure, he has almost no digital footprint except for an unverified photograph and several audio recordings of speeches.

Akhundzada is well known for his fatwas on Taliban matters.

Unlike many Taliban leaders, he is not of a militant background.

He was chosen to lead the Taliban’s shadow court system at the start of the Taliban insurgency, and remained in that post until being elected supreme leader of the Taliban in May 2016.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda, backed Akhundzada as the Amir al-Mu'minin, which strengthened Akhundzada's jihadist reputation among the Taliban's allies.

In 2019, Akhundzada appointed Abdul Ghani Baradar to lead peace talks with the U.S., which led to the 2020 signing of the Doha Agreement that cleared the way for the full withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan.

Akhundzada led the Taliban to victory against the Afghan government in a 2021 military offensive—while the U.S. withdrawal was still underway—then became Afghanistan’s absolute ruler and imposed a totalitarian Islamic government.

His government has been criticized for sweeping infringements on human rights, including the rights of women and girls to work and education.

On his orders, the Taliban administration has prevented most teenage girls from returning to secondary school education.

In July 2022, while attending a religious gathering in Kabul, Akhundzada lashed out at the demands of the international community on his government, ruling out any talks or compromise on his "Islamic system" of governance.

Akhundzada was born in the village of Sperwan in the Panjwayi District of Kandahar Province, Kingdom of Afghanistan.

On 16 August 2019, Akhundzada's younger brother, Hafiz Ahmadullah, was killed along with at least three other persons in a bomb blast during Friday prayer at the Khair Ul Madaris mosque in Kuchlak, Quetta, Pakistan.

More than 20 people were wounded in the attack, including Akhundzada's son and two nephews.

Akhundzada used to teach and lead prayers at the mosque and seminary that was attacked.

Officials of the ousted Afghan government, as well as some Western analysts, believed that Akhundzada was killed along with his brother in the bomb blast in Quetta.

"If they [the Taliban] announce Akhundzada is no more and we are looking for a new emir, it will factionalize the Taliban, and the Islamic State – Khorasan Province [the rival extremist group] could take advantage," a regional security source told Agence France-Presse.

However, the Taliban denied the claims about Akhundzada's death.

According to a Pakistan-based Taliban member, who said he had met Akhundzada three times until 2020, Akhundzada does not use modern technology, preferring to make phone calls on landlines.

He added that Akhundzada communicates to Taliban officials via letters.

He reportedly has two wives and has had eleven children, though there has been no official denial or acknowledgement of this.

Since coming to power, Akhundzada has ruled from Kandahar.

According to the Taliban, he lives in a private rental house in the city, not the Presidential Palace in Kabul.