RASC News Agency: Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban’s Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, in a recent speech delivered in Do Ab district of Nuristan province, instructed his officers not to be deterred by the torrent of insults they receive from the public. In his words: “Suppose from morning until evening the entire world and the people of Afghanistan insult you; even then, do not abandon your duties.” The remarks, broadcast through the Taliban-controlled state television, underscore the regime’s disdain for public opinion. Hanafi urged his agents to “be prepared to enforce virtue and prevent vice, accept people’s insults, and expect nothing else from society.” He further insisted that “whoever prevents people from committing vice will naturally face verbal abuse, but must never retreat from their work.”
Independent scholars and analysts say such statements reflect the true nature of a ministry that derives its authority not from law or the consent of the governed, but from coercion. According to them, the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice seeks to impose its agenda through fear, intimidation, and the systematic denial of freedoms. Human rights activists have repeatedly criticized the ministry’s conduct, noting that its record has been marred by abuses, arbitrary arrests, and extrajudicial actions since the beginning of Taliban rule. Verified reports from international rights organizations document how agents of this ministry have routinely detained women and girls in the streets over clothing or appearance, while men have been arrested and tortured for something as simple as trimming their beards.
The ministry’s draconian regulations make it compulsory for women to cover their entire bodies and even classify their voices as “aurat,” or a source of shame. Men, on the other hand, are forced to maintain beards, with violators subjected to interrogation and punishment. In one of the most recent incidents, just three days ago in Khwaja Bahauddin district of Takhar province, a man identified as Mullah Rasoul died under torture at the hands of Hanafi’s agents inside his own home. Local sources stress that this case is not an anomaly but part of a long pattern of similar abuses in recent years, in which agents of this ministry have been accused of killings, beatings, and brutal mistreatment of civilians.
Observers underline that the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue has failed to foster any genuine moral or social reform. Instead, it has systematically eroded public trust, strangled individual freedoms, and institutionalized violence. Far from strengthening the moral fabric of Afghanistan, the ministry has become a symbol of oppression and a driver of widespread human rights violations across the country.
