The mannequins must not have heads. This is what is foreseen by a new directive of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice of the province of Herat. For this reason, the Taliban ordered shopkeepers to behead the “statues”. These would in fact be “idols” and idolatry is prohibited, he recalled Aziz Rahman, head of the ministry’s local department, who also announced severe punishments for shopkeepers who will oppose the Taliban’s ruling, the Times reported. Indeed, Islam forbids the worship of anyone or anything other than Allah. Without the heads, however, the body would be completely covered and would no longer be an idol.
Initially, traders were ordered to remove the mannequins completely, but this would have destroyed their – few – businesses and caused complaints. Even so, there will still be financial losses, according to the president of the Herat trade association, Abdul Wadood Faiz Zada: “You could only cover the faces of the mannequins, without breaking them, because a mannequin costs between 70 and 100 dollars” he says. as written by Repubblica which also reports the testimony of Mohammed Irshad who tells of having more than one hundred mannequins in his three shops. Without the heads, no one would buy the clothes anymore because customers would be disconcerted to see the statues reduced in that way.
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