KABUL, Afghanistan — Addressing a gathering in Kabul on Sunday, where filming was prohibited Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban’s vice and virtue minister, who explained their leader’s recent decree, said that Islamic laws must be applied equally to all citizens, including Taliban officials.
“It is not the case that those who are senior or hold positions are exempt from this religion while it is enforced only upon the rest of the people,” he said in an audio message released by the Taliban-run media, RTA.
Meanwhile, he said that scholars and Taliban officials are the leaders of society, and their actions and guidance determine the future course of the community.
He added that Islam seeks the downfall of those who engage in fraud and deceit in transactions, and that this group also includes those who neglect their responsibilities.
Hanafi emphasized that responsibilities must be fulfilled in a way that “presents the best image of the Islamic system to the world”.
His comments a week after Taliban publicly executed four people in three provinces following their reclusive leader’s renewed call on implementation of Taliban-interpreted “Sharia law”.
Since the Taliban’s return to power nearly four years ago, the harsh rules — including public floggings, stonings, and executions — have been implemented only on ordinary citizens, with Taliban officials largely shielded from the same punishments.
Visual evidence has emerged showing senior Taliban officials, including those from the Taliban’s cabinet, meeting women in public, despite strict edicts forbidding women’s public presence or even their voices being heard, according to the Taliban’s own Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
The Taliban’s enforcement of a ban on the publication of images of living beings has also been selectively applied. While the group’s media outlets broadcast photographs of official meetings — including a recent meeting between senior Taliban leaders and a visiting Pakistani delegation — independent media outlets are banned from publishing similar content.
Over the past four years, Taliban authorities have flogged at least 855 people, including 148 women, and issued more than 178 qisas (retribution) sentences, according to reports from human rights organizations. At least 10 public executions have taken place, all targeting ordinary citizens, not Taliban members.
Women’s rights activists and ordinary citizens have criticized what they describe as a deeply hypocritical system. “Taliban officials themselves are accused of crimes like assault and murder, yet none of them have faced the same punishments they impose on others,” said Raqiya Saee, a women’s rights activist based in Kabul.
In interviews, several Kabul residents said Taliban-imposed “Islamic punishments” have been selectively enforced, targeting the powerless while exempting those in power.
Taliban leader’s decrees banning women’s education, restricting their movement, and enforcing dress codes remain in force, along with bans on imagery in the media and compulsory public corporal punishment — measures citizens say are often justified under a distorted interpretation of Islamic law.
