Four fans of iconic BBC show Peaky Blinders have been arrested by the totalitarian Taliban regime after dressing as the TV gangsters, said to be a breach of ‘Islamic values and Afghan culture’
Four men have been arrested in Afghanistan by the Taliban’s morality police – for dressing up like characters from Peaky Blinders. The group were held after showing off their gangster clobber on TikTok.
In a YouTube video published before their arrest, the men said they loved the BBC crime drama – which stars Cillian Murphy as the head of the Shelby crime family – and had received a mostly positive reaction from locals.
But the ultra-conservative brutal regime’s traditionalist enforcers swooped in the city of Hira and held them for violating ‘Islamic values and Afghan culture’, local media reports. Morality enforcers accuse them of criminally ‘promoting foreign culture’.
Photos of the group circulated widely on Afghan social media in recent days showing them wearing three piece suits, overcoats, starched club collar shirts and flat caps, styled clothes similar to characters from the Shelby family.
Some users dubbed them the “Jebrael Shelbies”, but Afghans are warned against copying practices associated with non-Muslim cultures. Under the Taliban’s totalitarian regime, clothing styles which conflict with Islamic values are banned.
The Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice spokesperson Saiful Islam Khyber justified the arrest because the “Thomas Shelby group” were spreading “foreign film-style acts”.
He said the behaviour was inconsistent with ‘Islamic values and Afghan culture’ and also posted a video of one of the men expressing regret for his behaviour after receiving “necessary guidance” for their actions.
Kabul-based human-rights advocate Ahmadullah Waak said the arrests illustrate the widening scope of restrictions on personal expression under Taliban rule, where clothing choices and artistic self-presentation have increasingly become grounds for detention.
The Taliban has previously detained many for perceived violations of dress codes, with barbers being ordered not to cut beards or style hair in what they deem ‘Western’ fashion.
Afghanistan’s morality ministry, which has been tasked with imposing Islamic law on the country since the Taliban came to power in 2021, last year banned photographs of ‘all living things’ as a part of the regime’s extreme interpretation of Islamic law.
They announced that the photography ban would be gradually enforced, but Taliban officials have continued to regularly post photos of people on social media.
UN agencies have warned that the ministry’s directives and punishments are often unpredictable and contribute to “an atmosphere of fear.”
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