Four young Afghan men were summoned by the Taliban’s department of vice and virtue after dressing in outfits inspired by the popular TV series Peaky Blinders.
A Taliban spokesman told the BBC that their clothing “was in conflict with Afghan and Islamic values,” explaining that the values portrayed in the series went against Afghan culture.
Videos posted online show the men, all in their early twenties from Jibrail town in Herat province, posing in flat caps and three-piece suits reminiscent of post-World War One England.
Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, the group has enforced numerous restrictions on daily life under its interpretation of Sharia law.
“Even jeans would have been acceptable, but the values in the Peaky Blinders series are against Afghan culture,” said Saiful Islam Khyber, a spokesman for Herat’s provincial department of Vice and Virtue, in comments shared with the BBC.
The men were instructed to report to the Taliban’s “morality police” on Sunday and complied the next day in Herat.
“They were promoting foreign culture and imitating film actors in Herat,” Khyber wrote on social media, adding that the men had participated in a “rehabilitation programme.”
Khyber emphasized to CBS News that the men “were not formally arrested, only summoned and advised and released.”
“We have our own religious and cultural values, and especially for clothing we have specific traditional styles,” he said.
“The clothing they wore has no Afghan identity at all and does not match our culture. Secondly, their actions were an imitation of actors from a British movie. Our society is Muslim; if we are to follow or imitate someone, we should follow our righteous religious predecessors in good and lawful matters.”
A video released by the ministry showed the men expressing gratitude for the guidance and admitting they had not known their actions violated any laws.
“I have innocently been sharing content that was against Sharia which had many viewers,” one said. He added, “I have been summoned and advised, and would no longer do anything like this.”
Earlier, in an interview with YouTube channel Herat-Mic uploaded at the end of November, the friends shared their admiration for the series’ fashion, noting the positive response they received locally.
“At first we were hesitant, but once we went outside, people liked our style, stopped us in the streets, and wanted to take photos with us,” one said, according to a CBS News translation.
