Taliban to ban images of ‘living things’

The Taliban has promised to enforce a ban on images of humans and animals in the Afghan media as part of the Islamist group’s wider campaign to implement Sharia law across the country.

Although the Taliban initially promised to be more moderate right after seizing power in 2021, the group has since imposed many restrictions, including the removal of images of women from public spaces and banning “immoral” films and musical instruments. 

“The law applies to all Afghanistan… and it will be implemented gradually,” Saiful Islam Khyber, the spokesman for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, told AFP on Monday.

Khyber claimed that “coercion has no place in the implementation of the law,” adding that officials would focus on persuading people that the depiction of living things was “really contrary” to…