The Taliban announced on October 14th that they would implement a new law that would ban news media and journalists in Afghanistan from taking and publishing any image of all living beings.
Afghanistan: Taliban ban media from showing images of living beings https://t.co/ZOIjuRm6YC
— VOZ (@Voz_US) October 15, 2024
The new rules came after the Taliban regime recently announced legislation that formalized the strict interpretation of Sharia law they have imposed on Afghanistan since they seized power in 2021 after the United States pulled out its military forces from the country.
Saiful Islam Khyber, a spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (PVPV), told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that “the law applies to all Afghanistan... and it will be implemented gradually,” adding that officials would work to persuade people that images of living beings are against Islamic law.
"Coercion has no place in the implementation of the law," Khyber said. "It's only advice, and convincing people these things are really contrary to sharia (law) and must be avoided."
Taliban are just implementing Islamic laws. Is it wrong?
— Eddy (@eddieyaz99) October 15, 2024
The law outlined several new rules for news media, which include banning the publication of images of living things, ordering outlets not to mock or ridicule Islam, and asking them not to violate Sharia law.
Some rules of the new law have not yet been strictly enforced, including advice to the general public not to take or look at pictures of living things on smartphones and other devices.
Taliban officials continue to post images of people on social media, and Afghan journalists were given assurances after the law was unveiled that they would be able to continue their work. The Taliban’s information ministry did not respond to requests by media organizations such as AFP for comment on the matter.
Don’t worry. It will be introduced gradually. Thank you for the time to adjust to our new culture, sharia overlords.
— bhan mi (@Siobhan_hawk) October 14, 2024
"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," Khyber said, adding that "work has started" in places such as Kandahar, a stronghold of the Taliban, as well as the neighboring Helmand province and Takhar to the north.
Before the law, Taliban officials in Kandahar were prohibited from taking photos and videos of living things, but the rule did not apply to news media.
I wonder if the Taliban get mad at reflections.
— Tommy Tucker (@TommyTucker091) October 14, 2024
"Now it applies to everyone," Khyber said.
In the central province of Ghazni on October 13th, Taliban officials summoned local journalists and told them the regime’s morality police would start implementing the new law. A journalist who declined to identify for security purposes told AFP the Taliban advised visual journalists to take photos from further away and film fewer events "to get in the habit.”
Reporters and journalists in the province of Maidan Wardak were also told the rules would be gradually implemented in a similar meeting.
Since they returned to power in 2021, Afghan business owners have sporadically faced censorship rules from Taliban officials, who ordered them to cross out faces of men and women on advertisements, cover the heads of shop mannequins with plastic bags, and blur the eyes of fish pictured in restaurant menus.
