Khalid Hanafi: People Should Trust Religious Scholars as They Trust Doctors
Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban’s Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, has urged people to trust the statements of mullahs without question, just as they rely on doctors’ diagnoses and medical advice.
On Tuesday, 12 Aqrab, the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue released excerpts from Hanafi’s remarks at a training workshop for employees of the group’s Ministry of Finance.
Hanafi described both religious scholars and doctors as specialists, saying there was no difference between them. To illustrate his point, he said that when a patient visits a doctor and is advised to exercise, the patient accepts the recommendation and follows it without hesitation.
He questioned why people trust experts in their everyday affairs but, in his words, doubt the guidance of mullahs, whom he described as specialists in matters concerning the afterlife.
The Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue is responsible for enforcing the group’s restrictions on people’s personal and social lives. Its inspectors monitor citizens’ clothing, behaviour, movement and daily activities.
The Taliban’s Law on the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, approved in 1403 (2024), grants ministry officials extensive powers, including the authority to question and punish people accused of failing to comply with the group’s directives and, in some cases, to detain them.
The ministry’s conduct, particularly its restrictions on women and girls, has drawn criticism from human rights organisations and the United Nations. Critics say the broad powers given to religious inspectors have curtailed people’s individual and social freedoms.
Writer:Saeed Sameer
