The Taliban’s Directorate of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Mazar-e-Sharif, capital city of the northern Balkh province, has started to crackdown on people who are not fasting during the month of Ramadan. Local representatives are ordered to cooperate in finding those who breaks the fast.
The Taliban’s religious authority, also known as the group’s morality police, has ordered local community representatives to provide a list of individuals who do not fast during the month of Ramadan. Failure to comply with the directive could lead to serious actions against the representatives, the Directorate has warned.
“Any representative who does not introduce the fast-breaking individuals from his area, will be dealt with,” the Directorate is heard as warning to local representatives in an audio tape obtained by KabulNow.
Additionally, the Taliban morality police has ordered shopkeepers to close their shops during the month of Ramadan after 8:00 PM until the end of Taraweeh prayers – Ramadan’s nightly prayer.
Any violation of this order, the Directorate warned, will result in serious actions against the shopkeepers.
Another source told KabulNow that on Saturday, the Taliban’s vice and virtue enforcers ordered the shopkeepers of Mazar-e-Sharif to close their shops 10 minutes before the time for Taraweeh prayers.
After regaining the power in August 2021, the Taliban converted the previous government’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs into the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
The Ministry’s personnel, mainly it’s vice and virtue enforcers, have been often seen in public harassing individuals for their clothing, appearance, shaved beards, and as well as for not showing up in regular mass-prayers at mosques in the capital Kabul and other provinces.
