UNESCO’s Activities for the Safeguarding of Bamiyan

Abstract

On February 26, 2001 (3/12/1421), the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan issued the following edict from the City of Kandahar: “On the basis of consultations between the religious leaders of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the religious judgments of the Ulema and the rulings of the Supreme Court of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, all statues and non-Islamic shrines located in the different parts of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan must be destroyed. These statues have been and remain shrines of infidels and these infidels continue to worship and respect these shrines. Allah almighty is the only real shrine and all false shrines should be smashed. Therefore, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has ordered all the representatives of the Ministry of the Promotion of Virtue and Suppression of Vice and of the Ministry of Information and Culture to destroy all the statues. As ordered, by the Ulema and the Supreme Court of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, all statues must be annihilated so that no one can worship or respect them in the future.”