KABUL: Afghan government employees must attend mosque five times a day or face punishment, Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada said on Thursday in his latest edict.

Since the 2021 Taliban takeover, Akhundzada has overseen sweeping restrictions on society — shutting women and girls out of modern education, ordering male chaperones for females and effectively banning music.

“The officials of the ministries and institutions of the (Taliban government) are obliged by Sharia to pray in congregation at their fixed times,” said the order signed by Akhundzada.

It added that employees who miss a prayer “without a reasonable excuse” should receive a warning, and if they repeat the transgression “the relevant official is obliged to appropriately punish him”.

A Taliban government spokesman did not respond to a query asking what the punishment would entail. It was not immediately clear how the order for employees to attend prayer during non-work hours would be policed.

Akhundzada directs the government from his hideout in southern Kandahar, the spiritual heartland of the Taliban movement which first ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

He rarely appears in public and when he does, bodyguards prohibit spectators from taking photographs or video of the man who has led the Taliban since 2016. But his intermittent edicts now define how Afghans can lead their lives.

A United Nations report last month said: “Restrictive measures to regulate activities of individuals in both public and private spheres contribute to a climate of fear and intimidation among segments of the population”.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2024