Taliban: Nowruz is not an official holiday in Afghanistan
Taliban officials have said that Nowruz is not an official holiday in Afghanistan. Earlier, the deputy minister of information and culture and Taliban spokesman had announced that Afghanistan would not officially celebrate Nowruz, but that it would not prevent Nowruz ceremonies from being held.
Abdul Ahad Imad, an official in the Taliban Ministry of Information and Culture, told Reuters: "We do not officially celebrate Nowruz, but we do not prevent people from celebrating this day."
The same news agency quoted Mohammad Yunus Seddiqi, spokesman for the Taliban government's Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, as saying that "Monday, the first day of the year, is not a public holiday in Afghanistan."
Earlier, Zabihullah Mujahid, deputy minister of information and culture and spokesman for the Taliban, announced the official position of the ruling party in Afghanistan regarding Nowruz. Mujahid emphasized in his speech: "We, the Taliban, do not celebrate any ceremony that is not in Islam." However, he added that the Taliban will not prevent people from holding Nowruz ceremonies.
Meanwhile, Qudratullah Tariq, the Taliban mayor in Mazar-e-Sharif, had said about preparations for holding Nowruz ceremonies: "Like previous years, preparations have been made this year as well, and we have worked to make the city green, illuminate it, and clean it."
The largest Nowruz celebration in Afghanistan is held every year at the Blue Mosque, a shrine dedicated to Hazrat Ali, the first Imam of the Shiites, in Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province, which in some accounts is called the “place of the ancient Nowruz celebration.” Thousands of people from all over Afghanistan travel to the city to participate in the Nowruz celebrations at the beginning of spring.
Until now, on the first day of spring in Afghanistan, a flag called "Jhandeh Bala" was raised in the courtyard of the Blue Mosque, including in the presence of heads of state, which is actually a symbolic gesture to start the Nowruz celebrations in the country. For the past two decades, Nowruz has been an official holiday in Afghanistan.
Source: DW
