Taliban ban pictures of ‘all dwelling issues’ in Afghanistan

The Taliban has banned photographs of ‘all living things’ as a part of the regime’s extreme interpretation of Islamic law. 

Afghanistan‘s morality ministry, which has been tasked with imposing Islamic law on the country since the Taliban came to power in 2021, announced that the photography ban will be gradually enforced.

Meanwhile, Taliban officials have continued to regularly post photos of people on social media. 

Saiful Islam Khyber, a spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (PVPV), told journalist that the law will apply to the whole of Afghan society. 

He said: ‘Coercion has no place in the implementation of the law.’

Taliban fighters ride on paddle boats at Qargha Lake on the outskirts of Kabul. The photography ban will be gradually enforced and for now Taliban officials have continued to regularly post photos of people on social media

Afghan journalists at a press conference. The Taliban is set to ban photographs of ‘all living things’ as the regime continues to implement its extreme interpretation of Islamic law

A convoy of Taliban supporters in Herat in August

‘It’s only advice, and convincing people these things are really contrary to sharia (law) and must be avoided.’

The new law detailed several rules for journalist, including banning the publication of images of all living things and ordering outlets not to mock or humiliate Islam, or contradict Islamic law.

Before the recent law was announced Taliban officials in Kandahar, where the Taliban’s headquarters are based, were banned from taking photos and videos of living things but the rule did not include news media.

Now local journalists are reporting that similar legislation is being implemented across the country.  

Yesterday officials in central Ghazni province summoned local journalists and told them the morality police would start gradually implementing the law.

A local reporter, who wished not to be named, said they advised visual journalists to take photos from further away and film fewer events ‘to get in the habit.’

Reporters in Maidan Wardak province, close to Kabul, were told the rules would be implemented gradually in a similar meeting.

Aspects of the new law have not yet been strictly enforced, including advice to the general public not to take or look at images of living things on phones and other devices.

Pictured: Armed Taliban fighters, some dressed in military camouflage gear, pose for a picture along a road near Qargha Lake on the outskirts of Kabul in September 2021

Afghan journalists and photographers in September 2024. The law is likely to have a profound impact on news publications in the country, which have already dwindled from 8,400 media employees – before the Taliban took over- to only 5,100 employees today

Afghan journalists claim they received assurances from authorities after the law was announced that they would be able to continue their work.

Khyber said: ‘Until now, regarding the articles of the law related to media, there are ongoing efforts in many provinces to implement it but that has not started in all provinces. 

‘Now it applies to everyone.’

Television and pictures of living things were banned across the country under the previous Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, but a similar edict has so far not been broadly imposed since their return to power.

Since 2021, however, officials have sporadically forced business owners to follow some censorship rules, such as crossing out the faces of men and women on adverts, covering the heads of shop mannequins with plastic bags, and blurring the eyes of fish pictured on restaurant menus.

The ban on photographs comes just over three years after the regime came to power.

Shortly after the takeover the Taliban made headlines  when they were pictured posing on fairground rides with rocket launchers and riding pedalos armed with machine guns.

The law is likely to have a profound impact on news publications in the country, which have already dwindled from 8,400 media employees – before the Taliban took over- to only 5,100 employees today. 

Shortly after the takeover the Taliban made headlines when they were pictured posing on fairground rides with rocket launchers and riding pedalos armed with machine guns 

A group of Afghan women wearing burqas. The Taliban have continued to impose draconian laws on women including bans on them playing sports and preventing girls from attending school beyond primary education.

This figure includes 560 women, who have borne the brunt of restrictions the United Nations have called ‘gender apartheid’, including being ordered to wear masks on television.

In Helmand province, women’s voices have been banned from television and radio.

Meanwhile, the Taliban have continued to impose draconian laws on women including bans on them playing sports and preventing girls from attending school beyond primary education. 

Multiple UN agencies have also reported an increase in child and forced marriage since the Taliban takeover.