Taliban arrest boys who dress up as Peaky Blinders characters in Afghanistan

The morality police of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, known for its strict approach, have arrested four young men for dressing up as characters from the British series, Peaky Blinders.

They were detained this week in the western Afghan city of Herat. The Taliban accused them of "promoting foreign culture" after photos of them, dressed in clothes similar to those of the Shelby family in the popular historical crime drama, went viral online.

Asghar Husaini, Jalil Yaqoobi, Ashore Akbari and Daud Rasa are members of a group calling themselves the "Thomas Shelby Group" and are known to locals as the "Jabrael Shelbys", after the Herat neighborhood where they live.

Over the past month, young men – all in their 20s – have been seen on the streets of Herat wearing flat hats, suits, gloves and long coats.

The clothing resembled the style of the era depicted in the drama Peaky Blinders, which portrays the period after World War I. The arrests are part of a wider campaign by the Taliban to eradicate what they see as modernity and Western influences in Afghanistan.

The Taliban's Law for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, officially adopted in 2024, specifically prohibits Afghan men from wearing Western clothing in public.

"They wanted to protest and show that they are against this system of coercion and domination," Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi told Radio Free Europe's (RFE/RL) Radio Azadi, commenting on the young people's motive for wearing those clothes.

"Such clothing is completely normal around the world, and these young people live in this world, have access to social networks, watch movies and television series," she added.

The Taliban's attempt to eradicate modernity

Since returning to power, the Taliban have imposed drastic restrictions on how Afghan men and women can look and behave in public.

Women are required to wear the niqab, a head-to-toe Islamic veil, and must be accompanied by a male guardian. Men are encouraged to grow beards and wear traditional Afghan clothing.

Most Taliban officials wear turbans and loose clothing. The spokesman for the Taliban's Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Saiful Islam Khyber, said that the behavior of the "Thomas Shelby" group contradicts "Islamic values ​​and Afghan culture."

He also released a video of one of the young men apologizing for their behavior.

Before their arrest, Husain, the group's leader, said they were motivated by a "particular interest in the classic style of dress" of the Peaky Blinders.

He told Herat Mic, a local YouTube channel, that they planned to later introduce traditional clothing styles from different Afghan communities.

Rasa, another member of the group, said they had faced criticism online.

"There was a lot of noise in virtual space," he said, adding that some relatives even accused them of promoting Western culture.

"But this is not just Western culture. In the '50s and '60s, we had a similar style here in Afghanistan," he said.

In Afghanistan, Western clothing became a symbol of modernity and liberalism after the reformist Afghan king, Amanullah Khan, adopted suits for men and skirts for women as formal wear in the 1920s.

In the following decades, many educated Afghans embraced Western dress, while state offices and official events required formal Western attire.

However, Afghan Islamist groups have opposed Western dress and behavior. The Taliban have officially banned such clothing and consistently target Afghans who wear it.

They have also undertaken a broad campaign against dress code violations, fining and imprisoning violators.

Created by British screenwriter and director Steven Knight, the drama Peaky Blinders follows the adventures of the Shelby family, a fictional family, in Birmingham after World War I.

The series has gained a huge fan base worldwide since its debut in 2013, airing six seasons and attracting hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide./REL