Morality police in Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia observe the public and punish transgressors of their strict dress and behavior codes. Those who belong to other religions or sects of Islam are also closely watched and reprimanded if they do not follow the prescribed codes.
The Taliban has a goal of destroying any remnants of culture not seen to reflect their interpretation of early Islam. The objectives of the Taliban include the subjugation of the populations of Afghanistan and Pakistan to their Muslim tenets. Their forceful tactics have included massacres of Hazara Shi'ite populations, planting their own Pashtun, Sunni people in their stead. The more progressive Afghan way of life will continue to be under threat wherever the militia of the Taliban exist.
Bonfires of the Vanities
The Bonfire of the Vanities (Falò delle vanità) refers to the famous burning of vain items that might lead one to sin. These gatherings of items and burnings were directed by the 15th century Priest Savonarola in Florence, Italy and the earlier San Bernardino da Siena who had promoted the burning of homosexuals in such fires. Items considered dangerous and promoting immorality were mirrors, fine apparel, jewelry, cosmetics and books. These items were gathered and destroyed in bonfires. Savonarola had such a great influence on people at the time that even the famous artist Botticelli was thought to have destroyed his own art that depicted pagan scenes.
Morality police in Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia peruse the crowds for unauthorized dress and actions, especially with regards to women. For over two centuries, Salafi Muslims from Saudi Arabia and other nearby Muslim countries have sought to punish, even with annihilation, any person or cultural attribute deemed not to strictly follow the original form of Islam in their judgment. In Afghanistan and Pakistan there is the crushing hand of the Taliban, influenced by the Wahhabi/Salafi restrictive attitudes, who seek to destroy, control, inhibit and punish other Muslims or traces of non-Muslim culture.
Destruction of Afghan Art
During the reign of the Taliban in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, much damage was done to the country’s cultural heritage. The Taliban are Sunni extremists, influenced by Wahhabi/Salafi strict Islamic doctrine and Pashtun tribal codes. The large Afghan Pashtun population has long desired more control of the country and they are supportive of the Taliban. Museums were targeted for destruction of art and artifacts found from other religions or with opposing sensibilities. International attention was drawn to Afghanistan’s plight and assistance was granted to move, hide, and save many artifacts. Many items are still held in European museums recognizing the ongoing threat of destruction in Afghanistan.
The artists and museum employees in Afghanistan, aware in advance of the coming of the Taliban to destroy artifacts, hid art and ancient sculpture that they predicted would be destroyed. Afghan artists painted over valuable paintings to disguise the original non-Islamic scenes and hung them back on the walls. While much was destroyed, many important Afghan paintings and artifacts were thus rescued.
Destruction of Ancient Buddhist Relics
The world was horrified In 2001 when the Taliban blew up 1500 year old Buddhist statues located in Bamiyan in northeastern Afghanistan. Their reasoning was that these were made by the infidels and did not belong in their Islamic state. International pleas for the statues seemed to stall the destruction, and then the Taliban, under the reversed direction from Mullah Muhammad Omar, bombed the statues. One of the destroyed statues was the tallest standing Buddha in existence at 175 feet tall. According to Hasan Khalid, engineers were called in from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to complete this destruction.
Not only did the Taliban destroy these historically-significant statues, but they attacked the local population of Hazaras living near the statues who were not Buddhist, but Afghan Shi’ites. This ethnic cleansing included plans to replace the entire Hazara population with Pashtun Sunnis.
Destruction of Human Rights
The Taliban ordered that no one was allowed to possess depictions of living things, including dolls, photographs, stuffed animals, etc. Other items that the Taliban declared unlawful included no kite flying, pork products or “…satellite dishes, cinematography, and equipment that produces the joy of music, pool tables, chess, masks, alcohol, tapes, computers, VCRs, television, anything that propagates sex and is full of music, wine, lobster, nail polish, firecrackers, statues, sewing catalogs, pictures, Christmas cards…,” etc.
While in control in Afghanistan, the Taliban bitterly opposed education for females after the age of eight, and up to that time girls were only allowed to study the Qur’an. Women were not permitted to work outside of the home, and when outside they were forced to be accompanied by a close male relative (mahram), and to wear burqas, or covering of the body from head to toe. If being treated by a male doctor, a male relative must accompany the female. Women were segregated in every way, even having separate buses for transportation. Girls were often forced into marriage at ages below sixteen. Generally, women lived in confinement and under threat of physical abuse or even public torture and death for infractions of the Taliban law.
Not only were women targeted, but also men. Men were conscripted to fight for the Taliban from an early age. They were severely punished or killed when they did not immediately follow orders. All men in Afghanistan were required to wear beards, short hair and head coverings. They also were threatened with public beatings, stoning, hangings, and firing squads performed in what was formerly a soccer stadium.
Sources:
Hasan, Khalid, "Swiss documentary on Afghanistan: Pakistani, Saudi engineers helped destroy Buddhas," Daily Times (March 19, 2006)
Martinez, Lauro, Fire in the City: Savonarola and the Struggle for the Soul of Renaissance Florence, Oxford University Press (2007)
Rashid, Ahmed, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, Yale University Press (2001)
The Taliban's War on Women: A Health and Human Rights Crisis in Afghanistan, A Report by Physicians for Human Rights (1998)
Paula I. Nielson - Paula I. Nielson, Ph.D., holds credentials and interests in anthropology, archaeology, religion, the Middle East and Asia.
