‘Persuasion first, violence later’: the Taliban’s new vice and virtue approach

In his first interview with western media, Kandahar's enforcer promises that things will be different from the brutal 1990s

Mawlawi Mohammad Shebani is officially in charge of policing morals throughout Kandahar, the Taliban heartland of southern Afghanistan.

He is newly appointed head of the provincial office for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, a title which strikes fear into many Afghans old enough to remember its previous incarnation under Taliban rule in the 1990s.