Panjshir Residents React to Taliban Declaration: Stop Slandering Us
On Thursday, the Taliban’s Department of Information and Culture in Panjshir province announced that the men’s and women’s salons would be separated, adding that playing music at weddings and drinking alcohol in restaurants and hotels in Panjshir would be prevented. Civil activists and residents of Panjshir province, however, said the Taliban are seeking excuses and “discrediting” the people of this province.
Meanwhile, local Taliban officials in Panjshir say the restrictions are the same in all provinces. The Department of Information and Culture of the Taliban government in Panjshir said that these restrictions were imposed by the order of the Ministry of Enjoining the Good and Forbidding the Evil across the country.
Responding to the Taliban’s new restrictions on the operations of hotels and restaurants, Panjshir civil activist Musamam Sharifi told Hasht-e Subh that the Taliban wanted to prevent a peaceful protest in the province. “New restrictions have been imposed by the Taliban following popular protests over the killing of a young man by the Taliban in the province,” Sharifi added. “In that protest, men and women from Panjshir all took to the streets and demonstrated against injustices. It is a rumor of the Taliban. The general purpose of these restrictions is to suppress critics and make excuses.”
Qand Agha Wasiq, another civil activist in Panjshir, said that in the past, apart from playing music, no alcohol was drunk in the province’s hotels and restaurants, nor were the halls of the hotels and restaurants mixed. “There has not even been a wedding hotel in Panjshir in since the past,” he added. “To this day, no one has ever been allowed to drink alcohol in this province. Panjshir has been the province of Mujahidin in the past and, the Taliban should not teach Islam to the people of this province now. Drinking wine, as well as having men’s and women’s halls together, is a lie in Panjshir.”
Meanwhile, Khalil Sabr, a resident of Panjshir province, said the Taliban should not make the people “infamous” under various pretexts.
However, Taliban officials in Panjshir province have denied allegations of defamation, saying the restrictions have been imposed equally in all provinces. Nasrullah Malekzada, director of information and culture in Panjshir province, told Hasht-e Subh that the restrictions were imposed in all cities and, Panjshir is one of them. “These restrictions have been imposed throughout Afghanistan, and Panjshir is part of the country, and without a doubt, everything that was mentioned in our declaration has been followed by the country’s hotels and restaurants,” he said. “Our declaration is not specific to Panjshir either.”
The Taliban-led government recently imposed restrictions on the movement of irresponsible individuals to provide better security and ensure that the security situation in Panjshir improves. At that time, this action was met with a sharp reaction from some residents and civil activists in the province. Civil society activists called the Taliban’s move a “complicity and harassment of the people.” On the other hand, after the Taliban took control of the province, a mass grave was found in which the victims were buried with their hands tied. Residents of Panjshir also attributed the incident to the Taliban and reacted sharply. Reports of house searches and harassment by the Taliban in this and some other provinces are published from time to time; This prompted the Taliban leader to issue an order to deter forces under his command from such clashes.
It is worth mentioning that during the previous government, Panjshir was one of the recreational provinces that hosted many domestic and foreign tourists every year. However, the former government prevented the transfer of alcohol and musical instruments to the province. It was once reported that security forces stationed at the entrance gate of Panjshir broke the Dambora (a musical instrument that resembles a guitar) of several domestic tourists.