Taliban ban chess being played in Afghanistan as it’s deemed ‘un-Islamic’ – Daily Star
Since the Afghanistan government’s collapse in 2021, the Taliban movement have progressively worsened human rights and imposed strict laws on everyday life. Banning chess is the latest in a stream of restrictions targeting the country’s entertainment and leisure.
Declaring the game “haram” (not permissible by Muslims), chess is now entirely forbidden in Afghanistan, and the Afghan Chess Federation has been disbanded. Many Muslims believe that partaking in haram activities is an act of sin, that can lead to spiritual decline.
A spokesperson for the Taliban’s General Directorate of Physical Education and Sports, Atal Mashwani, told local media that the justification for the ban was “Sharia-related reasons”
The Telegraph quotes an official from the now-defunct Afghanistan National Chess Federation as saying, “This is a suspension, not an outright ban, but it feels like the death of chess in Afghanistan. Chess runs in the blood of Afghan society. You’ll find it in homes, cafes and even village gatherings. Afghans love chess, we’ve won international medals, and the game is part of our cultural identity.”
The Cambridge Dictionary defines “endgame” as “the last stage in a game of chess when only a few of the pieces are left on the board”. One of the last remaining pieces of Afghanistan’s cultural identity that was other than “Islam” has fallen. Afghanistan is entering the endgame.
Purity spirals are not limited to Islam – a well-known Radio 4 documentary made by Gavin Haynes covered how even the cosy communities of Instagram knitting culture and young adult novels were consumed by the frenzy – but Islam is so prone to them that I am tempted to say that Islam is not a medium in which vortices form but a vortex itself.
I respect the culture of Afghanistan. It’s their country. They live how they want to live.
We don’t owe any of them and shouldn’t give any of them asylum.
I see nothing to respect about a shithole like Afghanistan. The place is beyond redemption. It’s only valuie is as an exemplar of Sharia taken to it’s logical conclusion.
I don’t resoect the right of anycollective to impose its illiberal will on people who are
minding their own business, and have harmed no one. What aspect of the Afghan culture do you find to be worthy of respect, Stuart Noyes?
–line from an old Pashtun song.
So, basically in a land where you can’t even look at a woman without “honour” based antics the buggering of young boys is the only pass-time.
I mean there’s fuck-all else to do. The Taleban also banned flying kites. Oh, they do allow lads to compete in reciting the Qu’ran (in Arabic) without knowing Arabic – they just memorise the sounds.
That is Afghan culture and worthy of respect because all cultures are equal apart from Western ones.
The fact that NATO blood and treasure was spilled trying to “sivlize” these degenerates is enough to make Darth Vader vomit with rage.
As the great American philosopher Carl Carlson said, “Yeah, even the boy in the bubble had a deck of cards”.
‘This film is dedicated to the gallant people of Afghanistan’ – Rambo III, 1988.
Coming soon to an island off the coast of France.
Once upon a time Afghan hospitality was legendary.
I saw a depressing post on Twitter that consisted of a series of pairs of photographs. The first photo of each pair consisted of a woman enveloped in a black burqa, her features invisible. The caption said, “This is not traditional [Afghan/Syrian/Iranian etc.] dress.” Then it said “This is:” and the next photo showed a woman (a different one each time but all of them were attractive and most were smiling) dressed in what was once the national costume of that country. The costumes varied quite widely but most of them featured brightly coloured fabrics and intricate embroidery.
Even if we wanted to conquer countries such as this to provide liberty and order, if not democracy, there are simply far too many of them and far too few of us. China and India are too wise to try and pick up the mantle of global policeman, and have no problem defending their borders robustly. Best we can do is start defending our borders equally robustly and let the rest of the world’s troubles wash out as they may.
There is no attractive solution to the problem of Islam.
One of the least unattractive would be for the President of the United States, ideally with Western allies, to call a summit of the leaders of all Islamic countries and say to them:
‘We will not interfere in your countries, but the next time, if there is a next time, that any Islamic attack occurs against any Western country or its interests we will obliterate Mecca, Medinah and every one of Islam’s holy sites, and we won’t worry about the death toll.
We will make an exception for Islamic holy sites in Israel; those we will simply demolish rather than destroy by bombing.
Now go back to your countries and control your people.’
Oh well, an old man can dream.
True I can not read Arabic – but I can find nothing in translations of the Koran or the Hadiths that banns chess.
This is not Islam (and I am not shy of saying when bad things are Islamic) and it is not the “culture of Afghanistan”.
This is a group of vicious men, the Taliban, who Western “post modern” military forces were unable to destroy in 20 years.
Just as the “post modern” doctrines the Israeli military have been saturated with, have led to it being unable to destroy Hamas in over a year and half.
These “post modern” military doctrines are going to destroy us.
War is not an episode of “Star Trek” – war is NOT about doing XYZ clever things and then “getting an agreement” or “deterring them”.
War is about destroying the enemy – one does not “make a deal” with the dead. War is about making the enemy dead.
Jay Thomas – Afghanistan conducts it’s affairs as they think fit. Our ideas of democracy aren’t theirs. Our ideas of personal liberty and freedom aren’t theirs. They do them. We do us.
So they’ll have to play ‘blindfold’ like Magnus Carlsen, leaving no trace of the game and no boards or pieces to give the game away.
The problem their opponents have in that country is the same as in the Krikkit Wars in the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, as Ford Prefect put it: ‘They care; we don’t; they win.‘.
Problem is, “they” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. “They” are mostly the few very powerful mullahs who let everyone know that Allah insists that they be slaves to those same mullahs, and enforce it with their wealth and arms.
I imagine that the typical powerless Afghani bricklayer treasures his own fate and freedom as much as I, but I’m lucky enough to have some personal power with which to guarantee it for myself.
I’m not pro-invasion, or even pro-police-action, but I don’t want to conflate the lives and desires of the lowly with the rich warlords. Sending in hit squads against those mullahs would actually be a pro-liberty act.
Meh. Westphalia. What other people do in other countreis is entirely the business of those other people in other countries. We have absolutely no right to interfer, let alone insist on then doing what we tell them to do. Don’t people remember the century-long struggle to throw off foreign yokes?
Mutatis mutandis, the same could be said of the EU, US, and UK; and most if not all the rest of the world.
Adam Curtis’ 2015 documentary Bitter Lake included this scene where befuddled Afghan women are being taught about Marcel Duchamp’s Dadaist toilet as an example of western art. This was being funded by the good folk at USAID.
True.
But . . . . “Life is hard” could be said to be universally applicable mutatis mutandis, but the difference in degree of applicability is not insignificant.
I had to drive a few miles to find my ribeye for dinner. They have to find the rare goat in a wasteland and then . . . 😉
@James Strong
‘We will not interfere in your countries, but the next time, if there is a next time, that any Islamic attack occurs against any Western country or its interests we will obliterate Mecca, Medinah and every one of Islam’s holy sites, and we won’t worry about the death toll.
That is completely ridiculous. The problem with a lot of these shithole countries is that they divorce individual actions from individual responsibility and individual consequences. Killing thousands of people who have no hostility to you and destroying things they hold precious is just as horrific as killing westerners because they don’t bend the knee to Allah. When people do bad things we punish them not their family or their kin. A billion people in the world pray toward Mecca. The large majority of them are the poor and oppressed who have absolutely no hostility toward you or I and no plans on becoming bombers. Killing them out of outrage is no answer.
Sometimes, when normal police function is impossible war is necessary. But even in war one should not relish the death of innocents or the destruction of their property. On the contrary, decent people have an absolute obligation to try to minimize this that is so euphemistically called “collateral damage”.
Rather the answer is what President Trump is doing right now. Friendship and commerce, mutual understanding, building links that share our humanity. Or to put it another way — profit. All societies do not share many things in common, but perhaps the most common shared virtue is that we’d rather be rich than poor, rather feed our families than not. Of course there are exceptions to even this low bar. The religious nuts we will always have with us, but religion can be neutered by self interest, in fact it usually is.