Latest news with #MullahHibatullahAkhundzada
Arab News
a day ago
- Politics
- Arab News
No more ‘acting': Taliban mark fourth year in power by dropping interim titles
KABUL: Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the Taliban, has ordered his ministers to remove the 'acting' designation from their titles, a move experts say indicates the establishment of a permanent Afghan government. Weeks after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the group formed a caretaker government consisting almost entirely of senior figures and without female representation, which has remained in place ever since. As Afghanistan marks the fourth anniversary on Friday since the Taliban takeover of the country, the group's reclusive chief, who rules largely from Kandahar, told his officials to stop using 'caretaker' in their roles. 'All ministers and the cabinet of the Islamic Emirate should not use the word caretaker in their titles,' Akhundzada said in a statement. When the Taliban first announced a caretaker administration it was framed as a temporary set-up before the country established an official and inclusive government that included women and members of Afghanistan's diverse ethnic groups. Afghans were expecting a voting system to establish a permanent government that would include their voices, whether it was in the form of elections or a 'loya jirga,' a grand assembly traditionally held to reach a consensus on important political issues. 'But now that the supreme leader (has) instructed that the current government is official, from a legal perspective the supreme leader's decree constitutes a law for the Taliban government, replacing the constitution,' Abdul Saboor Mubariz, board member of the Center for Strategic and Regional Studies in Kabul, told Arab News. 'The political implication of this decision could be that there is no hope for major change in the present form of government.' The initial announcement of a caretaker government, he added, was in the hope of gaining official recognition by the international community. With the exception of Russia in July, no other nation has formally recognized Taliban rule since the group seized power in 2021. 'But now they (have) realized that no big progress has been made in that regard so they want to make the current government permanent,' Mubariz said. Naseer Ahmad Nawidy, a political science professor at Salam University in Kabul, said the removal of 'caretaker' in ministerial titles could mean higher authority for Taliban officials. '(It's) something positive. The ministries in Kabul need to have (a) free hand and more authority in their relevant tasks considering the expertise required for each sector,' he told Arab News. The Taliban also used the term initially to mean that 'the ministers were only temporary and that the actual authority was only with the supreme leader in Kandahar,' Nawidy added. 'It also has another message to the executive officials: that no one should be above obeying and all decrees of the leader must be implemented without any questions,' he said. 'The new announcement is an indication that the Islamic Emirate wants to show that the government is fully established.'
The Independent
28-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Hundreds of books removed from stores, libraries and universities in Afghanistan
Taliban supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada has issued a directive ordering the removal of "deviant" books from all institutions across Afghanistan. A committee involving four Taliban ministries has been formed to review books and refer any "suspicious content" to clerics for further scrutiny. Hundreds of titles, including classic literature, historical works, and books on women's rights or secular governance, have already been pulled from circulation. The Taliban justify the ban by claiming these books are "against national interests," "anti-Islam," or aim to "mislead and corrupt society," conflicting with Islamic and traditional Afghan values. Publishers report that the censorship process is often arbitrary, leading to a collapse in the publishing industry and restrictions on book imports.
The Independent
28-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
From ‘Sapiens' to ‘The Book of Mormon': The banned books the Taliban deems ‘deviant' and ‘un-Islamic'
Taliban supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada has issued a directive ordering authorities across Afghanistan to identify and remove 'deviant' books from bookstores, school libraries, universities, and public and private institutions. Books including Dante's 14th century allegory The Divine Comedy, Joseph Smith's The Book of Mormon, Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, and Yuval Noah Hariri's bestselling Sapiens – a wide-reaching history of humankind – have been pulled from circulation. The works of several well-known Islamic scholars and theologians, as well as Iranian intellectuals and Afghan writers, have also been blacklisted. Independent Persian spoke to publishers and school librarians in Herat and Kabul who confirmed that books on women's rights, United Nations edicts, the biographies of Taliban critics, secular government structures, and even those about the former Afghan Republic have been labelled 'deviant' and are now banned from sale, distribution or public access. Four Taliban ministries including the Ministry of Guidance, Hajj and Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Information and Culture, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Higher Education held a meeting on Sunday 13 July to reaffirm enforcement of this directive. During this meeting, the Ministry of Religious Affairs announced that, under an order from Taliban leader Akhundzada, a committee has been formed with representatives from all four ministries. This committee is tasked with reviewing books across the country and referring any 'suspicious content' to clerics for further scrutiny. Noor Mohammad Saqib, the Taliban's Minister for Religious Affairs, referencing what he called a 'special decree' from Akhundzada, stated that books written in recent years with the aim of 'misleading and corrupting society' and distributed in libraries, educational institutions, and public spaces will now be collected and removed. He added that guidelines are being developed for religious teachers and clerics so that they can educate the public about such books 'in light of Sharia principles'. Saqib claimed that Afghanistan has not only suffered from military intervention in recent decades but also from what he called 'cultural attacks'. He alleged that many foreign cultural institutions operating in Afghanistan aimed to 'undermine Islamic and traditional Afghan values'. Addressing Taliban officials, he said: 'It is now our duty to protect and fully introduce this [Islamic] culture to the Mujahid nation [of Afghanistan]'. Criticising books published under the previous Republic, Saqib said they conflicted with Afghanistan's Islamic and traditional values and 'diverted young people from their true goals'. He emphasised that now, under Taliban control, authorities have the opportunity to remove such works and replace them with content that is 'pure, Islamic and aligned with Afghan values'. According to the Taliban leader's decree, any books identified as 'suspicious' or 'deviant' will be handed over to a group of clerics who will evaluate their content and determine whether they should be banned. Previously, Taliban agents from the Ministries of Information and Culture, and Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, had already confiscated hundreds of book titles they labelled 'against national interests' or 'anti-Islam' from libraries and banned their publication and sale. Other Taliban institutions, including the Ministries of Education and Higher Education, have also restricted access to certain books in schools and universities. A banned book list issued by the Taliban's Ministry of Information and Culture and sent to publishers and booksellers last winter prohibited texts that they considered 'against national interests, anti-Islam, in opposition to the Islamic Emirate, containing false beliefs, promoting ideas contrary to Islam' as well as works on women's rights and human rights. Publishers were also given a clear warning that selling these books is completely prohibited, and violators will face punishment. Publishing professionals in Kabul say there is no clear or standardised process for reviewing books under Taliban rule. Any Taliban member, particularly officers from the Promotion of Virtue ministry, can enter a bookstore or library and ban any book they personally deem anti-Islamic or harmful to national interests. A Kabul-based publisher, who asked to remain anonymous, told Independent Persian: 'Since the Taliban returned to power, not only has Afghanistan's once-growing publishing industry collapsed, but even book imports from Iran have been restricted. Taliban border agents now inspect all books, cross out images of living beings and deny entry to many titles.' The publisher added that the Taliban's Ministry of Information and Culture has created a publishing committee made up mostly of clerics and individuals without higher education. 'These people review content, and if a book doesn't match their beliefs, they label it anti-Islamic or against national interests and block its publication'. A source in Herat, who works as a literacy advocate, shared three separate lists of banned books from libraries in Herat with Independent Persian. These lists suggest that Taliban censorship is far more extensive than officially acknowledged. Together, the three lists contain 620 banned titles compiled by the Library Oversight Committee of Herat Schools. Members of this committee have already removed these books from shelves. The listed books are flagged with terms such as 'Shi'ism, praise of traitors, promotion of secularism, democracy, Western freedoms, defence of women, communism, praise of Iran, superstition, anti-Taliban views, UN laws, descriptions of the Republic, praise of music and undesirable content.' Banned authors include both Afghan writers and prominent figures from the wider Islamic world. For example, the Taliban have banned works like Kitab al-Tawhid by Mohammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab; Four Reforms in the Qur'an by Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi; Social Justice in Islam by Sayyid Qutb; biographies and writings of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani; books by Abdullah Azzam; and numerous Iranian intellectuals like Ali Shariati, Morteza Motahari, and Ramin Jahanbegloo. Books by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, including his well-known The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, are also on the list. Many are marked as containing 'false beliefs, Shi'ite ideology, or heresy'. Currently, the Taliban have no formal procedure for reviewing or censoring books. According to reports, decisions about a book's acceptability are often made arbitrarily and based on personal biases. However, the Ministry of Religious Affairs has said it plans to develop guidelines that will be distributed to imams and teachers so that they can identify 'deviant books' and inform the public about them.
