Watch: Female mannequins beheaded in Afghanistan, video goes viral

The Taliban have ordered shop owners in western Afghanistan to chop off the heads of mannequins, saying that the human figures violate Islamic law, NDTV reported.

A video clip featuring men cutting the plastic heads off women mannequins went viral on social media.

Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban have increasingly forced their harsh interpretation of Islamic law, largely curtailing freedoms, especially those of women and girls.

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"We have ordered the shopkeepers to cut the heads off mannequins as this is against (Islamic) Sharia law," Aziz Rahman, head of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in the city of Herat, told AFP on Wednesday.

"If they just cover the head or hide the entire mannequin, the angel of Allah will not enter their shop or house and bless them," he added, after some shop-owners initially reacted by concealing the heads of mannequins with headscarves or plastic bags.

So far the Taliban have not issued national policy on statues or mannequins.

Under Taliban's harsh interpretation of Islamic law, depictions of the human figure are prohibited.

Since returning to power, they have forbade girls to attend secondary schools in several provinces while women have largely been barred from working in the public sector and excluded from government posts.