Taliban arrest 4 men for dressing up as

Four young people were arrested for Taliban authorities in Afghanistan and put them in a rehabilitation program to walk in public dressed as their favorite characters from the hit British drama “Peaky Blinders.”

The Taliban government’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice said the four friends, who had become popular in their local municipality of Jibrail, in the southern province of Herat, for strutting through the streets in trench coats and flat caps, were detained for “promoting foreign culture.”

The men, all in their 20s, were detained in Jibrail, according to Saif-ur-Islam Khyber, a government ministry spokesman.

“They were promoting foreign culture and imitating film actors in Herat, they were arrested and a rehabilitation program was started for them,” Khyber said on Sunday in a post on one of his social media accounts. “Praise Allah, we are Muslims and Afghans; we have our own religion, culture and values. Through numerous sacrifices, we have protected this country from the spread of harmful cultures, and now we are defending it too.”

However, speaking to News themezone on Tuesday, Khyber said the men were not formally arrested, “just cited, counseled and released.”

“We have our own religious and cultural values, and especially in clothing we have specific traditional styles,” Khyber told News themezone on Tuesday. “The clothes they were wearing do not have any Afghan identity and do not match our culture. Secondly, their actions were an imitation of actors in a British film. Our society is Muslim; if we are to follow or imitate anyone, we must follow our righteous religious predecessors in good and legal matters.”

The friends, Asghar Husinai, Jalil Yaqoobi, Ashore Akbari and Daud Rasa, who recently appeared on a local YouTuber’s chat show, were often seen walking around in outfits inspired by the Shelby family from the hit Netflix series.

Videos and photographs of them walking shoulder to shoulder in their costumes circulated widely on social media in Afghanistan in the days before their arrests.

In the group interview posted online in late November by local YouTube channel Hirat Mic, young people said they admired the fashion from the show and had received overwhelmingly positive reactions from locals.

“At first we were hesitant, but once we came out, people liked our style, they stopped us on the street and wanted to take photos with us,” Yaqoobi said. “Some comments were negative, but we only paid attention to the appreciation.”

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan, however, considered the suits to be “contrary to Islamic values ​​and Afghan culture.”

A video released by the ministry and shared by Khyber along with his statement includes audio in which one of the young men is said to express regret over his decision to wear Western clothing.

“I’m on Instagram and I have five million followers. Without realizing it, I was publishing and spreading things that went against Sharia,” says the voice in the audio recording, which the ministry identifies only as one of the young people, not by name. “I was summoned and warned, and from today on I will no longer engage in such sinful activities, and I have stopped.”

A close friend of the four young men told News themezone that their arrest was “ridiculous.”

“The country always feels like a prison,” said the friend, whom News themezone is not identifying for security reasons. “Our friends were wearing these costumes for no political or other reason, just for fun, and the Taliban religious police arrested them… They admired the British series and wanted to share that admiration, but it turned into a nightmare. Now they are behind bars.”

The arrests come amid an offensive by Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban authorities to enforce strict dress codes and other social rules for men, women and children. Women and girls have seen their Rights are restricted more dramatically.excluded from practically all work and formal education after 11 years.

The Taliban regained control of the country after two decades of Western-backed rule in the summer of 2021, when the US military withdrew under a Agreement reached between the Taliban and the US during President Trump’s first term.

The Ministry of Vice and Virtue’s crackdown on any behavior deemed un-Islamic under the country’s strict interpretation of Sharia law has been far-reaching.

In a social media post on Tuesday, spokesman Khyber said two street magicians were arrested in Balkh province for engaging “in activities contrary to Islamic Sharia law for a long time.”

“Books and documents related to witchcraft were obtained from the aforementioned people, which, according to initial information, have influenced family disputes, separation of spouses and the formation of some social problems among the inhabitants of this province,” he said.