The Taliban’s Morality Ministry has dismissed more than 280 security force members for not growing beards and detained over 13,000 people for “immoral acts” in Afghanistan last year, officials said Tuesday.
The Ministry for the Prevention of Abusive Depravity and Promotion of Virtue said in its annual operational update that about half of those detained were released after 24 hours. It did not specify the type of alleged crimes or the gender of the detainees.
Mohibullah Mokhlis, director of planning and legislation at the ministry, told a news conference that authorities had destroyed 21,328 musical instruments last year and prevented thousands of computer operators from selling “immoral and unethical” films in markets.
He said the commission had identified 281 security force members who did not wear beards and that they had been dismissed in line with their interpretation of Islamic law.
The Ministry of Morality, which took over the disbanded Women’s Ministry complex in Kabul after the Taliban took over in 2021, has been criticised by human rights organisations and the United Nations for imposing restrictions on women and stifling freedom of expression.
The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan reported cases in which Ministry of Morality officials stopped and detained women, sometimes for a few hours, for not conforming to their interpretation of Islamic dress.
The Taliban have described the detention allegations as “baseless” and say the rulings apply to their interpretation of Islamic law and Afghan customs.
The morality ministry did not provide figures on monitoring women’s attire or their travel without a male chaperone, which authorities have banned even over long distances. It said a new plan was being worked on to ensure compliance with Islamic dress rules, overseen by the supreme spiritual leader who lives in the southern city of Kandahar.
“Based on the guidance of the supreme leader, a draft plan for women to observe hijab (Islamic dress) has been prepared and approved,” Mokhlis said.
The Morality Ministry had previously said women should cover their faces or wear a full-covering burqa and that there would be “encouragement” for this, with the women being targeted at their male family members rather than directly.
Even before the Taliban took over, most Afghan women in the conservative country covered their hair in public, but some, especially in Kabul, usually did not cover their faces or wore burqas.
Mokhlis said they have prevented more than 200 cases of the sale of women and over 2,600 cases of violence against women.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
