Herat: The Taliban has ordered a shop owner in Western Afghanistan to cut the head of the doll, the figures insist on representing the human form of violating Islamic law.
Video clips that show men sawing doll heads shop in Herat have become viral on social media, drawing ridicule both at home and abroad.
Since returning to power in August, the Taliban increasingly imposed harsh interpretations of Islamic law and very restricted freedom – especially for women and women.
While the hard-line Islamists have not issued a formal national policy on women’s chops – or other creeping restrictions – various local authorities clamping on what they say is immoral practices.
Aziz Rahman, head of the Ministry for the promotion of the virtue and prevention of Herat representatives, confirmed orders to AFP on Wednesday.
Some shop owners have tried to overcome bookings by covering mannequin heads with scarves or bags, but Rahman said it was not far enough.
“If they cover the head or hide all mannequins, the angel of God will not enter their shop or home and bless them,” he said.
Some shop owners in the city around 600,000 are angry with orders.
“As you can see, we have cut heads,” Basheer Ahmed, a garment seller, told AFP, adding every dummy to cost 5,000 Afghanistan (around $ 50).
“When there is no mannequin, how do you expect us to sell our products? Customers like it when the garment is wrapped properly on the mannequin.” After returning to power on August 15, the Taliban promised a softer version of the hard rules that marked their first task in power, from 1996 to 2001, when every artificial representation of the human form was prohibited.
But restrictions have crept back including local order reports for people to attend prayers five times a day, for men to plant beards, and for Western clothes will be discouraged.
Women, in particular, feel the burden of new orders, and slowly squeezed from public life.
Most secondary schools for girls are closed, women are prohibited from government work other than special areas, and last week new guidelines state they cannot travel long unless accompanied by male relatives.
The Taliban has also increased attacks on liquor sellers, rounded up drug addicts and illegal music.
Their takeover has destroyed the Afghan economy that depends on assistance, with billions of dollars of assets frozen by the United States and international assistance is largely paused.
However, the UN Security Council last week adopted the US resolution to help humanitarian aid reaching Afghanistan despair while maintaining funds from the hands of the Taliban government, which no country has not been recognized.