Taliban Hosts Poetry Contest in Helmand to Promote Leader’s Decree
The Taliban’s Directorate of Information and Culture in Helmand province has organized a poetry contest in Lashkargah’s cultural center under the banner of combating what it calls “harmful customs and traditions.”
The event was attended by a number of local poets and religious performers, who used poetry and song to convey the messages outlined in Decree No. 17 issued by the Taliban’s supreme leader.
According to officials from the directorate, the aim of the poetry session was to “clarify and explain” the decree’s provisions—a move that underscores the Taliban’s ongoing efforts to use cultural tools to enforce its strict ideological beliefs.
Organizers said poets from various districts of Helmand gathered to recite verses that rejected certain social traditions deemed by Taliban authorities as incompatible with “Islamic Sharia.”
During the event, the Taliban’s Information and Culture Directorate awarded both cash and symbolic prizes to selected poets and performers—an act that could be seen as the instrumentalization of culture and art to advance authoritarian policies.
Such events are being held amid growing concerns among Helmand residents and others in Afghanistan about escalating restrictions on individual, cultural, and civil freedoms under Taliban rule.
