Taliban Calls for Machinekhana Site to Be Managed Under Its Own Rules

As restoration work continues in the historic Machinekhana area, Sheikh Abdul Rahman Tayyibi, deputy minister for culture and art at the Taliban-run Ministry of Information and Culture, has stressed the need to manage the site in line with the administration’s policies and laws.

According to information released by the Taliban, Tayyibi visited the Machinekhana site with staff from relevant departments of the deputy ministry and officials from the Aga Khan Cultural Services organisation, where they discussed the work completed so far and the next stages of restoration at the site.

He said preserving the historical value of Machinekhana is important, and that the site, alongside other historical and cultural monuments in Afghanistan, is part of the country’s identity and cultural heritage.

This comes as the Taliban administration’s emphasis on enforcing applicable policies and laws in public and historic areas also affects access to and the use of such places, an issue for which the details regarding Machinekhana were not made clear in the statement.