The Taliban have ordered shop owners in western Afghanistan to cut off the heads of mannequins, insisting the human figures violate Islamic law.
A video clip showing men sawing the plastic heads off women figures went viral on social media.
Since returning to power in August, the Taliban have increasingly imposed their harsh interpretation of Islamic law, severely curtailing freedoms, particularly those of women and girls.
“We have ordered the shopkeepers to cut the heads off mannequins as this is against (Islamic) Sharia law,” Aziz Rahman, head of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in the city of Herat, told AFP on Wednesday.
“If they just cover the head or hide the entire mannequin, the angel of Allah will not enter their shop or house and bless them,” he added, after some clothes vendors initially responded by covering the heads of mannequins with plastic bags or headscarves.
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