Fundamentalists ordered the removal and disposal of non-religious or immoral books.
Like an absurd evocation of Ray Bradburythe Taliban seem to reissue Fahrenheit 451that dystopian novel where a tyranny prohibited and burned books in order to suppress dissenting ideas.
This week, Islamic totalitarianism in Afghanistan, which took power by force two years ago, ordered to withdraw and eliminate all those books contrary to Islam and to “the interests” of the country, including those that promote secularism or “immorality”.
“There are still hundreds of books on the market that are written against Islam, against Islamic principles or that promote other ideologies such as secularism (not religious)”, argued the director of the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture, the Taliban Abdulhaq Hemad, seeking to justify the devastating measure.
In addition to the religious question, the fundamentalists disapproved of the works whose contents are not governed by the morality that they promote. “There are also some books that lead to the immorality of the young”, Hemad told the Afghan news network Tolo News.
As is obvious, in a dictatorship everyone responds to orders for fear of reprisals. Quickly, publishers delivered thousands of books with supposed harmful content for the Afghan people, so the authorities could burn them, like the dark firefighters of Fahrenheit 451.
Even the Afghan Publishers and Booksellers Union joined the wave of censorship decreed by the Taliban. Sayed Ahmad Saeed, general secretary of the union, said that they will take all necessary measures to prevent the circulation of this type of content. His goal, he explained, is to avoid escalating unnecessary political tensions.
“If books are published that increase national tension, political problems and controversies, which lead the nation into a crisis, we will try not to repost themSaeed said.
The return of the Taliban to power in 2021 wiped out the tepid progress that had been made in recent years in terms of the rights and freedoms of Afghan civil society.
The most affected were once again women, who were prohibited from studying and were relegated to home ostracism.
But what is disturbing is that Bradbury, in 1953, perceived the future so clearly.