Implemented Sharia in Afghanistan Over Past 3 Years, Says Taliban Representative in Tehran

As per the executive editor of Afghanistan International Television (AITV), Iran’s assistance helped the Taliban leaders acquire orbital jammers for the satellite stations of the and shut down broadcast for more than a week.

Harun Najafizada told the media outlet that Taliban officials reportedly sent disruptive signals from a ground station within Afghanistan to the satellite, interfering with its broadcast.

Hundreds of people in Afghanistan saw a blank screen from September 5 to September 13 before the channel shifted to a different satellite frequency.

The channel is popular among Afghans for their critical coverage of the country’s hardline Islamist regime. AITV has consistently reported on the Taliban brutalities on Afghan women, minorities and widespread shutdown of humanitarian work and have also not followed Taliban’s orders of having no female anchors or women appearing on TV with their faces covered.

“I had received information in August from inside Kabul that the Taliban had purchased an extremely expensive jammer with the intention of using it against us,” Najafizada, who operates the channel from London, UK, said.

Other sources who spoke to the British media outlet on the condition of anonymity claimed that the Iranian orbital jammers were obtained earlier this year around May and the expensive purchase was confirmed from inside Kabul’s General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), the intelligence agency of the Taliban.

As per the report, this is not the first time Iran has been accused of interfering with press freedom in central Asia. During the protests against the morality police following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died in custody, AITV’s sister channel Iran International also experienced satellite jamming from a ground station in Karaj near Tehran. This impacted the Iranian news channel’s frequencies on Eutelsat and Arabsat satellites. Iran allegedly jammed and disrupted the broadcast services in 2022 during the civil protests caused by Amini’s death.

The report stated that Najafizada said that the act of orbital jamming not only attacks press freedom but also violates international standards and highlights the Taliban’s increasing efforts to dismantle free expression and restrict Afghan citizens’ access to truthful information.

Many Afghan scholars are dissatisfied with the Taliban's religious policies and criticise them.

Mullah Hassan did not directly address the Taliban's internal divisions, but implicitly called for unity among all forces and religious leaders.

In a statement issued on Friday, he warned that anyone who disobeys this order will face a strong response from the Taliban.

In this declaration, the Taliban's prime minister has emphasised to prevent controversial discussions and debates in eight articles.

The statement called on the mullahs to refrain from mentioning "rare issues" so as not to cause sedition.

Mullah Hassan Akhund said that the mullahs should only express from the pulpit and the media those issues that "are in the interest and happiness of the people in this world”. Religious beliefs, religious rules, Islamic ethics and religious issues are among the issues that mullahs are asked to express.

According to the Taliban's prime minister, mullahs who continue to use inappropriate words in the media give people doubt and make way for sedition.

Officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran have called the failure of the Taliban representative to stand up in honour of the national anthem as an "unconventional and unacceptable act”.

Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported that the Iranian Foreign Ministry's Second South Asia Department summoned the Taliban's chargé d'affaires at the Afghan embassy in Tehran on Friday morning.
The agency called the Taliban's action "contrary to diplomatic norms”.

Azizur Rahman Mansour, the deputy of the Ministry of Guidance, Hajj and Religious Affairs, who headed a delegation to Tehran, did not stand up during the 38th International Islamic Unity Conference when the national anthem of the Islamic Republic of Iran was played. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was also present at the ceremony.

Following widespread criticism of the move, Azizur Rahman Mansour on Friday in a video justifying not standing up in honour of the Iranian national anthem, claimed that it is not customary in Afghanistan to stand in honour of the national anthem.

These statements come at a time when in many cultures, including the culture of Afghanistan, standing during the playing of the national anthem is recognized as a sign of respect for the people and national symbols of that country.
Hassan Kazemi Qomi, the Iranian president's special representative for Afghanistan affairs, in a response, called the behaviour of the Taliban representative disrespectful to diplomatic principles. He stated, "Lack of respect for diplomatic principles under the pretext of banning music from the principles of Sharia has no meaning."

Abbas Mousavi, Iran's former ambassador to Azerbaijan, also reacted to the Taliban's disrespect for the national anthems of Iran and Pakistan, saying that they did not observe diplomatic decency. He suggested that "it would be best to suspend inviting them to any official events until their procedures were modified”.

Recently, the Taliban's consul general in the city of Peshawar behaved similarly when the Pakistani national anthem was played during an official ceremony and did not get up.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the Taliban's move, saying, "We will convey our strong protest to the Afghan authorities in Islamabad and Kabul."

The Taliban's consul general in Peshawar said that he did not get up because of the playing of music in Pakistan's national anthem, adding, "There was no intention to disrespect or humiliate the national anthem of Pakistan."

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that the behaviour of this Taliban diplomat is reprehensible and has hurt the sentiments of the people of Pakistan.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch announced during her weekly press conference in Islamabad on Thursday, that Pakistan has conveyed its strong protest to the Taliban's officials in Kabul.

She said decisions would be taken after due internal deliberations and conclusion of talks with the Taliban government. She said that Pakistan reserves the right to take action in accordance with diplomatic norms and practices.

Earlier, the Taliban's consul general in Peshawar had announced that he did not stand up when the national anthem was played because of the presence of music, stressing that there was "no intention to disrespect or humiliate the national anthem of Pakistan”.

Mohibullah Shakir, the Taliban's consul general in Peshawar, attended a conference on Tuesday at the invitation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur. While other officials and diplomats stood up as the Pakistani national anthem was played, he and his companion were the only ones who did not get up.

This action of the Taliban consul general has provoked the anger of Islamabad and the Pakistani media has extensively covered the issue over the past two days. Some Pakistani media outlets have described the behaviour of the Taliban diplomat as disrespectful to Pakistan.

Amir Khan Muttaqi said that the Taliban's Foreign Ministry has been able to control and manage political representations in the region over the past year.

Amir Khan Muttaqi did not mention these countries.

On Thursday, during a programme explaining the one-year achievements of the Taliban's Foreign Ministry, he said that after trying to establish diplomatic relations with other countries, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan removed the group's name from the list of banned groups.

According to Amir Khan Muttaqi, Russia is also ready to remove the Taliban from the list of banned groups in the near future.

The Taliban's foreign minister said that China, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan have officially accepted the Taliban's ambassadors, and that dozens of the group's diplomats have been sent to Malaysia, Turkiye, Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Moscow, China, Doha and the United Arab Emirates.

The Taliban's foreign minister also criticised the UN Secretary-General's statements about the existence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan and the Taliban's support for these groups.
Amir Khan Muttaqi said that Antonio Guterres has made accusations against the Taliban without investigation.

According to Muttaqi, the UN Secretary-General's information about Afghanistan is very weak. He said that there are no irresponsible groups in Afghanistan and that no harm has been done to any other country from Afghan soil in the past three years.

At a press conference in New York on Wednesday, António Guterres expressed concern over the Taliban's support for terrorist groups in Afghanistan and warned that these groups may infiltrate other countries as well.