Taliban destroys murals in Kabul and Nangarhar

On 5 July 2024, various videos circulated online showing two men cleaning up a mural in Torkham, Nangarhar. The three-metre tall monument was initially erected in 2019 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Afghanistan’s independence. It contained the portraits of Amanullah Khan, the ruler of Afghanistan who led the country to independence, and Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a Pashtun political and spiritual leader.

According to several Afghan news agencies, local sources who asked to remain unidentified for security reasons, claimed the mural had been censored with black paint over the faces of the two Afghan figures, by employees of the Taliban Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice the previous day.

According to news agencies and social media users, the two men who cleaned the artwork were reportedly beaten and arrested by Taliban forces on 5 July, and released a few hours later. AW was not able to verify this information. On 6 July, following online attention, the local Taliban administration covered the murals in white paint, and redesigned them to incorporate the map and flag of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as seen in the figure below.

This is not the first time that the Taliban has attempted to remove the name of Amanullah Khan from Afghanistan’s cultural heritage. In December 2022, the administration painted over his picture on the wall of Paktia Medical College, replacing it with a map of Afghanistan.

Destruction of Hazara cultural monument in Kabul

On 7 July 2024, social media users shared photos of a second destroyed monument by the Taliban. The cultural piece is located in the Dasht-e Barchi area, a Hazara majority part of Kabul, and featured the face of Abdul Ali Mazari, a prominent Hazara figure and former leader of Hezb-e Wahdat-e Islami, the Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan.

According to various reports, Taliban forces destroyed the statue with drills and nails, and then covered the destroyed parts with plaster, as seen in the figure below.

The monument is located in Abdul Mazari Square, near an area where large-scale demolitions of residential properties have been taking place for the past weeks. These are reportedly part of a wider plan to connect Dasht-e Barchi to Puli Surkh neighbourhood. It is however worth noting that merging the new road to Abdul Mazari Square requires neither the total nor partial destruction of the monument.

On 8 July, Hazara community leader Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq shared his thoughts on his Facebook account, pointing out that the destruction occurred in the month of Muharram, an important religious period for the Hazara and Shiite community, and claiming the incident was carried to exert “religious and ethnic psychological pressure on the Hazaras and Shiites of Afghanistan.”

This is also not the first time the Taliban administration attempts to remove Mazari’s name and presence from Afghanistan cultural heritage. In November 2021, the Taliban de-facto authorities replaced a statue of Mazari in Bamyan with a statue of the Quran. In May 2022, the Taliban reportedly destroyed the sign of “Mazari Road” in Ghazni, and renamed the Abdul Ali Mazari Square in Daykundi to Faiz Mohammad Kateb Square. In December 2023, the Abdul Ali Mazari Airport in Bamyan was renamed to “Bamyan Airport.”