Taliban kisses goodbye to lipstick, movies

The Taliban controls 95 percent of Afghanistan

By staff and wire reports

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- When Afghanistan's ultra-conservative Taliban banned television in 1998, the drought-ridden nation's people might have sought solace in a game of cards or chess, or even the strum of a guitar.

No longer.

On Thursday the Taliban placed bans on the import of 30 products including playing cards, computer discs, movies, satellite TV dishes, musical instruments, cassettes and chessboards, after declaring them un-Islamic.

The Taliban's supreme leader Mullar Mohammad Omar ordered the ban, according to the radical Islamic movement's Voice of Shariat radio, monitored in the Pakistan capital Islamabad.

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Other items listed as banned for being "against the Sharia", or Islamic law, include fireworks, statues, fashion catalogues, greeting cards featuring pictures of people, lipsticks, nail polish and neckties.

Pig products and anything made from human hair were banned, too.

The radio quoted the leader's order as telling border guards and security agencies to seize the banned items and hand them over to the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

Previous bans

Wednesday's order follows one last month banning the printing of pictures of animals or verses from the Koran on any products.

The Taliban swept to power in 1996 and controls 95 percent of the war and famine-ravaged country.

The Taliban also bans education for women

It has barred women from education, most types of work, and from going out without wearing the all-enveloping "burka" veil. Men are ordered to grow long beards and not wear Western clothes.

The movement sparked international protests earlier this year by ordering the demolition of ancient Buddhist statues and asking the country's small non-Muslim population to wear distinguishing badges.

Continuing civil war

Meanwhile, fresh fighting broke out Thursday in northern Afghanistan amid accusations from both Taliban rulers and rebel troops.

Taliban officials said opposition soldiers, led by ousted defense chief Ahmed Shah Massood, launched a blistering offensive in northern Takhar province before dawn.

Opposition soldiers used newly acquired tanks from Russia in the assault in Tangi Fahar, a strategic region that links opposition held territories in northern Afghanistan, they said.

The Taliban have repeatedly accused Iran, Russia and several Central Asian countries of assisting their opponents, who rule in about 5 percent of the country, most of it in northern Afghanistan.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.