{"id":15207,"date":"2026-01-21T21:35:58","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T17:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/?p=15207"},"modified":"2026-01-21T21:35:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T17:05:58","slug":"hanfi-beard-is-not-private-justifying-street-harassment-and-armed-raids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/hanfi-beard-is-not-private-justifying-street-harassment-and-armed-raids\/","title":{"rendered":"Hanfi: Beard Is Not Private; Justifying Street Harassment and Armed Raids."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hanfi: Beard Is Not Private; Justifying Street Harassment and Armed Raids.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Khalid Hanfi, the Taliban\u2019s Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, has claimed that individuals\u2019 beards and clothing do not fall under personal privacy and that religious police have the right to intervene.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saif-ul-Islam Khyber, the ministry\u2019s spokesperson, released a portion of Hanfi\u2019s speech on Wednesday, January 21, 2026, in which he questioned objections to trimming beards, wearing traditional caps, and Islamic garments, citing the principle of \u201cenforcing Sharia law\u201d and dismissing protests against these interventions as baseless.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his speech, Hanfi emphasized that the duty of the ministry\u2019s officers is to implement Sharia and rejected any claims that these measures interfere with personal life.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These statements come amid repeated reports that ministry officials have harassed people in public spaces, particularly women, imposing strict and intimidating measures that, according to residents, have turned public life into an atmosphere of fear and restriction.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tensions escalated after Taliban officers, armed, raided a graduation ceremony of students in Herat just days earlier, threatening them and forcibly removing their traditional caps solely for wearing them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Witnesses said the incident posed life-threatening risks for the students. Residents note that the Taliban\u2019s strict interpretation of Sharia significantly infringes on personal freedoms, psychological safety, and citizens\u2019 rights of choice.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hanfi: Beard Is Not Private; Justifying Street Harassment and Armed Raids. Khalid Hanfi, the Taliban\u2019s Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, has claimed that individuals\u2019 beards and clothing do not fall under personal privacy and that religious police have the right to intervene. Saif-ul-Islam Khyber, the ministry\u2019s spokesperson, released a portion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15215,"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15207\/revisions\/15215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}