: Kinder, Gentler “Morals Police” Back on Afghan Streets

One of the most hated aspects of the Taliban-era Afghan government was the so-called “Department of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice“, which once sent over 30,000 officers on the streets to beat alleged violators of Islamic law who sported beards or burqas that were too short. Although the department was closed after the Taliban were removed, President Hamid Karzai has re-opened the department, promising to use persuasion rather than beatings to get the point across. “The Taliban used to beat women in the streets,” said department head Mohammad Wazir Razi Kabuli. “Under Islam, you don’t beat people. You invite them to change their ways.” However, when asked what would happen if a woman was caught wearing makeup in public, Kabuli said “It’s too early to talk about that.” In any case, violators fare better under this system than they did within a block of Seattle’s fringe Dar-us-Salaam mosque in the late 1990s, where similar morals police roamed the area beating offenders until stopped by the police.

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.