Residents in Takhar say Taliban administration collecting money for mosque construction
Residents of Kalfagan district in Afghanistan’s northern Takhar province say the Taliban administration is collecting money from families to build a mosque, a move they say has added fresh pressure on people already facing poverty and unemployment.
According to local sources, village representatives and mosque imams have been instructed to collect between 500 and 1,000 Afghanis from each family and hand the money over to the district office within a week.
One resident of Kalfagan said many families are facing severe economic hardship and cannot afford to pay such amounts. He said that under the current conditions, even meeting basic living needs has become difficult for some families.
Residents say this is not the first time money has been collected for public facilities. According to them, the Taliban administration also collected money last year to build a health centre in the Kotarma area as well as a central mosque.
Local sources say that for the construction of the Kotarma health centre, 500 to 1,000 Afghanis were also collected from each family, but the facility has not yet been built. A social activist in Kalfagan also said that between 5,000 and 10,000 Afghanis were collected from each family for the construction of a central mosque in the district centre, but that mosque is still not complete.
Some Kalfagan residents also claim that under the name of عشر and zakat, the Taliban administration is collecting money from people and farmers, and that in some cases these funds are being used for the personal expenses of officials. The Taliban administration has not yet clarified how these funds are collected or spent.
The report comes as the United Nations Development Programme previously warned of rising poverty in Afghanistan, saying that in 2025 about 74 percent of the population, nearly 28 million people, were unable to meet their basic living needs. Kalfagan district is one of the districts in Takhar province in northeastern Afghanistan.
