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KABUL: The office of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice was formally opened in the eastern province of Nangarhar by the new provincial governor’s office.
Dawood Mojahed, head of provincial department for hajj and religious affairs, said Monday that new governor Ziaulhaq Amarkhil formed the office after consulting clerics, tribal elders and police.
The new office, Mojahed said that would hold awareness programs on the religious obligations to people.
Also police have been ordered to take serious actions on preventing vices, according to Mojahed.
This new religious office emerged for the first time in Taliban government (1996-2001). The department’s operatives used to punish and disrespect people just because their beards, hairs or clothes were not in accordance of the Taliban style.
Prior to Nangarhar, the office was said to have been shaped in the western province of Herat with similar programs.
Officials in Herat had claimed that the office began to work after several complaints raised by people about serving alcoholic beverages in the city’s restaurants.
The new office bans male physicians from visiting and examining women patients and TV channels were called to stop broadcasting Turkish “vulgar and obscene” serials.
Some civil society activists criticize the office, saying such measures are green signals to Taliban as the militants are feared to join the power.
