The Taliban have ordered shop owners in Herat, western Afghanistan, to cut off the heads of mannequins in their stores. According to the Taliban, this is considered to be contrary to Islamic law.

This is in addition to a series of measures taken by the Taliban movement to impose its strict vision of Islam on the country and to limit public freedoms, especially for women and girls.

"We have asked the shop owners to cut off the heads of mannequins because they are against Sharia," Aziz Rahman, head of the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Herat, the country's third largest city, with a population of about 600,000, told AFP Wednesday.

A video clip showing men cutting off the heads of mannequins went viral on social media.