RASC News Agency: Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban’s Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, has reaffirmed the strict enforcement of the group’s edicts during his recent provincial tours across Afghanistan. According to reliable sources, the core objective of these visits has been to implement a blanket ban on photography and filming. Hanafi has urged local Taliban officials to rigorously enforce the ministry’s mandates in collaboration with the morality police (hisbah). On Wednesday, the Ministry of Virtue announced that Hanafi had visited Logar Province, where he met with Taliban members and local authorities. While the ministry withheld specifics about the private meetings between Hanafi and provincial officials, insiders revealed that the main purpose was to enforce the prohibition on visual documentation.
Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, alongside several ministers, governors, and commanders, is determined to ban photography and filming across all government institutions. Despite this, some Taliban members continue to share images from official meetings and daily activities. Khalid Hanafi, a trusted confidant of Akhundzada, has now ordered governors and commanders to cease all forms of visual documentation. The first province to implement this directive was Kandahar, where Governor Mullah Shirin banned both photography and filming, instructing government employees to provide written reports instead.
As a result, official announcements from several provinces and ministries are now being released without images, and in some areas, national television broadcasts have been suspended. Reports indicate that Khalid Hanafi’s provincial visits are being conducted under direct orders from Mullah Hibatullah. In the past week alone, he has toured Nangarhar, Laghman, and Logar provinces, attending public meetings and holding private discussions with local officials. The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue, as mandated by the Taliban’s leader, has been granted significant authority, with all government institutions instructed to fully comply with its policies and directives.
