Taliban arrest four youth in Herat over ‘Peaky Blinders’–style outfits

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan’s Herat city have arrested four young men for wearing outfits inspired by the British TV series Peaky Blinders, 24NewsHD TV reported on Monday.

The men were arrested in Jebrael township in the city of Herat by the Taliban’s morality enforcers, according to Saif-ul-Islam Khyber, the Taliban’s spokesman for the vice and virtue ministry.  "The youths were accused of “promoting foreign culture.”

 Photos of the group — wearing long coats, flat caps and styled clothes similar to characters from the Shelby family in the crime drama — had circulated widely on Afghan social media in recent days, where some users dubbed them the “Jebrael Shelbys.”

In an interview published earlier on the YouTube channel “Herat Mic,” the young men said they dressed this way out of admiration for the show’s fashion and received mostly positive reactions from residents.

One of them said they also intended to showcase traditional clothing from Afghanistan’s different ethnic communities.

The Taliban ministry said the behaviour was inconsistent with “Islamic values and Afghan culture.” Khyber also posted a video of one of the youths expressing regret for his appearance.

Taliban have previously detained many for perceived violations of dress codes and have instructed barbers not to cut beards or style hair in what they deem “Western” fashion.