KABUL: The Taliban have ordered shop owners in western Afghanistan to cut off the heads of mannequins, insisting the human figures violate Islamic law.

A video clip showing men sawing the plastic heads off women figures went viral on social media.

“We have ordered the shopkeepers to cut the heads off mannequins as this is against (Islamic) Sharia law,” Aziz Rahman, head of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in the city of Herat, told AFP on Wednesday.

The Taliban have so far issued no national policy on mannequins or statues.

Under the former militants’ strict interpretation of Islamic law, depictions of the human figure are forbidden.

Last week authorities in Kabul said women seeking to travel long distances should not be offered road transport unless accompanied by a close male relative.