Taliban Govt clearing 'un-Islamic' books from Afghanistan shelves

Taliban authorities are removing "un-Islamic" and anti-government literature from circulation by checking imported books and distributing lists of banned titles.

Checking imported books, removing texts from libraries and distributing lists of banned titles — Taliban authorities are working to remove "un-Islamic" and anti-government literature from circulation.

The efforts are led by a commission established under the Ministry of Information and Culture soon after the Taliban swept to power in 2021 and implemented their strict interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia.

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In October, the Ministry announced the commission had identified 400 books "that conflicted with Islamic and Afghan values, most of which have been collected from the markets".

The department in charge of publishing has distributed copies of the Koran and other Islamic texts to replace seized books, the ministry statement said.

The Ministry has not provided figures for the number of removed books, but two sources, a publisher in Kabul and a government employee, said texts had been collected in the first year of Taliban rule and again in recent months.

"There is a lot of censorship. It is very difficult to work, and fear has spread everywhere," the Kabul publisher told AFP.