In the’Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban is no place for Valentine’s Day. In fact, the Taliban morality police have banned Valentine’s Day celebrations, and bans have appeared on the streets and squares of Kabul stating that Valentine’s Day is “not an Islamic holiday and not part of Afghan culture, but a slogan day of the infidels.” , as reported by AFP. “Celebrating Valentine’s Day is showing sympathy for the Christian Pope,” it says. Although Valentine’s Day has never actually been celebrated in Afghanistan, some city dwellers have begun celebrating Valentine’s Day in recent years, which is every celebrated on February 14. This year, however, with the Taliban in power, the French agency reports, shops on Kabul’s famous Flower Street were covered in heart-shaped garlands and red stuffed animals but hopelessly empty of customers.
The Taliban Ban
In a shop window, a sign signed by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice warned shoppers: “Avoid celebrating Valentine’s Day!”. “The situation has changed: we can’t celebrate it like other years,” Zahrah, a woman who has been married for seven years, told AFP. “But we celebrate it. There are some restrictions and the situation is not good, but we celebrate it at home.” In fact, whoever can tries to celebrate Valentine’s Day away from the Islamist oppression by the Taliban morality police. But the fear is there because the regime is getting tougher. An AFP reporter said he saw a young couple secretly buying flowers and quickly left the shop on the horizon when they noticed the arrival of a morality police patrol.
It was September 2021 when Mawlawi Mohammad Shebani announced the creation of the Taliban Morality Police to the Guardian. “First,” Shebani explained, “you have to educate these people and then pressure them to change their behavior. Now this body, reminiscent of a dystopian novel, reports to the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. A branch of the executive branch that speaks volumes about the Taliban’s ultra-conservative Islamic vision of the state and of society in general. Unlike moderates, as they had tried to present themselves. And so, Valentine’s Day went from a holiday as it should be, if only for a few, to a sad and depressing day for Kabul florists and for all couples looking to express and celebrate their love.
oppressed women
The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) has published an updated joint assessment of the situation Afghanistan. The recently published guide concludes that women and girls are at risk of persecution by the Taliban and are therefore generally entitled to refugee status in Europe. According to the latest EEA analysis, Afghanistan remains one of the top countries of origin for applicants for international protection, with around 14,900 applications lodged in the EU alone in November 2022. During 2022, the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan and captured some of the enforced the worst gender discrimination policies the world has ever seen: At the start of the new school year, in March 2022, they announced the indefinite closure of secondary schools for girls and stripped them 3.5 million youth of education.
Then, in April, they fired thousands of government employees who had been ordered to stay home on promises they would receive their salaries (they stopped paying them around the same time). In the same month, all women without a male companion were also banned from boarding planes at Kabul Airport. Previously, the Taliban had banned women from traveling by road without a male relative.