Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has approved a law banning poets from criticising his decrees or writing love poetry, further tightening restrictions on free expression in Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Justice said Saturday the new legislation, published in the official gazette, sets out 13 articles regulating poetry gatherings. The law prohibits any criticism of Akhundzada’s orders and decisions and bars verses praising “boys and girls” or encouraging friendship between them. It also demands poetry be free of “worldly love, improper desires and inappropriate emotions.”
The Ministry of Information and Culture will enforce the law, with oversight committees to be established in Kabul and provincial centres. Each committee will include representatives from the ministry, the Taliban’s virtue and vice authority and the Ulema Council. They will be tasked with vetting poetry and speeches for compliance.
Violators, including poets, speakers and organisers, will face punishment “in accordance with Sharia,” the ministry said.
The law also declares feminism, communism, democracy and nationalism as “un-Islamic” and bans poets from referring to them. In its preamble, it instructs poets to use their work to defend Islam and interpret Sharia law. All provisions are addressed to “brother poets,” effectively excluding women.
The move follows earlier restrictions on literary gatherings. In June, Akhundzada issued directives on poetry events after the Taliban cancelled festivals in Parwan and Nangarhar provinces and arrested poets accused of writing critical verses.
Human rights groups say the new rules mark a return to the Taliban’s hard-line cultural policies of the 1990s and are part of broader efforts to curb civil liberties, silence critics and impose the group’s interpretation of Islam on Afghan society.
