Controlling imported books, removing texts from libraries and distributing lists of prohibited titles: the Taliban authorities are working to remove “un-Islamic” and anti-government literature from circulation.

These efforts are being led by a commission created under the Ministry of Information and Culture shortly after the Taliban came to power in 2021 and implemented their strict interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia.

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In October, the ministry announced that the commission had identified 400 books “in conflict with Islamic and Afghan values, most of which were collected from markets.”

The publishing department distributed copies of the Quran and other Islamic texts to replace the seized books, the ministry statement said.

The ministry did not provide figures for the number of books removed, but two sources, a publisher in Kabul and a government employee, said texts were collected during the first year of Taliban rule and again over the last few months.

“There is a lot of censorship. It is very difficult to work and fear has spread everywhere,” the Kabul publisher told AFP.

The books were also restricted under the previous foreign-backed government overthrown by the Taliban, when there was “a lot of corruption, pressure and other problems”, he said.

But “there was no fear, everyone could say what they wanted,” he added.

“Whether or not we can make changes, we can raise our voices.”

Against religion

AFP received a list of five banned titles from a Ministry of Information official.

It includes “Jesus, the Son of Man” by the famous Lebanese-American author Khalil Gibran, for containing “blasphemous expressions”, and the “counterculture” novel “Twilight of the Eastern Gods” by the Albanian author Ismail Kadare.

“Afghanistan and the Region: A West Asian Perspective” by Mirwais Balkhi, education minister under the former government, was also banned for “negative propaganda”.

Under the previous Taliban regime, from 1996 to 2001, there were relatively few publishing houses and booksellers in Kabul, the country having already been ravaged by decades of war.

Today, thousands of books are imported every week from neighboring Iran – which shares the Persian language with Afghanistan – via the Islam Qala border crossing in the western province of Herat.

Taliban authorities searched boxes of a shipment at a customs warehouse in the city of Herat last week.

One man flipped through a headline in English, while another, dressed in a camouflage uniform with a picture of a man on his shoulder, searched for images of people and animals in the books.

“We have not banned books from any particular country or person, but we study books and block those that are against religion, Sharia or the government, or if they contain photos living beings,” said Mohammad Sediq Khademi, an official. with the Herat Department for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (PVPV).

“All books that go against religion, faith, sects, sharia… we will not authorize them,” the 38-year-old told AFP, adding that the evaluations imported books had started about three months ago.

Images of living beings – banned under some interpretations of Islam – are restricted under a recent “vice and virtue” law that codifies rules imposed since the Taliban’s return to power, but these regulations have been unevenly applied.

Importers have been informed which books to avoid, and when books are deemed unsuitable, they are given the option to return them and get their money back, Khademi explained.

“But if they can’t, we have no choice but to seize them,” he added.

“One time we had 28 boxes of books that were rejected.”

Compensation stock

Authorities did not go store to store searching for banned books, a provincial information department official and a Herat bookseller said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

However, some books were withdrawn from libraries in Herat and bookstores in Kabul, a bookseller, who also requested anonymity, told AFP, including “The History of Jihadist Groups in Afghanistan” by the Afghan author. Yaqub Mashauf.

Books containing images of living things can still be found in shops in Herat.

In Kabul and Takhar – a northern province where booksellers say they have received the list of 400 banned books – banned titles remained on some shelves.

Many non-Afghan works have been banned, one seller said, “so they look at the author, whose name is there, and they are mostly banned” if they are foreign.

His bookstore still carried translations of “The Gambler” by Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the fantasy novel “Daughter of the Moon Goddess” by Sue Lynn Tan.

But he wanted to sell them “at a very low price” now, to get them out of his stock.