Taliban minister says morality ministry is key to Islamic system

Muhammad Khalid Hanafi, acting minister of the Taliban administration’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue, Prevention of Vice and Hearing Complaints, has stressed the continued role of the ministry, saying that promoting virtue and preventing vice is the “spirit of the Islamic system.”

He said that any system in which there is no promotion of virtue and prevention of vice is “not a complete Islamic system.”

The remarks come as the Taliban administration’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue has, over the past more than three years, been considered one of the main bodies enforcing social restrictions, particularly on women and civil liberties.

After returning to power, the Taliban administration dissolved the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and reactivated the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue, Prevention of Vice and Hearing Complaints, an institution responsible for overseeing the implementation of orders and social restrictions.