{"id":9725,"date":"2026-05-20T23:15:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ariananews.co\/en\/news\/taliban-fighters-embrace-bollywood-culture-despite-past-condemnations\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T23:20:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:50:58","slug":"taliban-fighters-embrace-bollywood-culture-despite-past-condemnations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ariananews.co\/en\/picture\/taliban-fighters-embrace-bollywood-culture-despite-past-condemnations\/","title":{"rendered":"Taliban Fighters Embrace Bollywood Culture Despite Past Condemnations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Field observations from the capital&#8217;s markets reveal that thousands of Taliban fighters, who were educated in conservative religious schools in Pakistan for years and once deemed visual imagery as &#8216;haram&#8217;, have now become the main customers of video rental shops, romantic songs, and Bollywood cinema.<\/strong><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-149476\" src=\"https:\/\/media.ariananews.co\/images\/2026\/05\/\u0637\u0627\u0644\u0628\u0627\u0646-\u0641\u0644\u0645_-\u0647\u0646\u062f\u06cc-825x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"825\" height=\"1024\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Shopkeepers in Kabul confirm that while ordinary citizens are engaging less with entertainment due to economic hardship, Taliban members increasingly visit stores to purchase Indian films or secretly watch dance and music online via their phones and the internet.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts and some government officials acknowledge that this shift in behavior is not a sign of freedom but rather a reflection of the &#8216;ongoing repression of human instincts&#8217; within extremist frameworks and a deep identity crisis among a generation caught between ideological violence and a yearning for a lost natural life. This stark reversal illustrates the gradual erosion of a project aimed at purging society of art, as its very members find themselves ensnared in the forbidden cultural patterns they once denounced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a surprising twist, Taliban fighters, previously educated in strict religious schools and opposed to visual media, are now frequenting video rental shops and engaging with Bollywood films and music. Shopkeepers in Kabul report that while the general population faces economic challenges and turns away from entertainment, these fighters indulge in the very cultural expressions they once abhorred. Analysts suggest this behavior reflects a deeper identity crisis among a generation torn between extremist ideologies and a desire for cultural connection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_mat_hreflang_tags":{"fa-AF":"https:\/\/ariananews.co\/photos\/%d8%b7%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%85%d9%85%d9%86%d9%88%d8%b9%db%8c%d8%aa-%d8%aa%d8%b5%d9%88%db%8c%d8%b1-%d9%81%d9%84%d9%85-%d9%87%d9%86%d8%af%db%8c.html\/","en":"https:\/\/ariananews.co\/en\/picture\/taliban-fighters-embrace-bollywood-culture-despite-past-condemnations\/","ar":"https:\/\/ariananews.co\/ar\/picture\/taliban-fighters-embrace-bollywood-culture-despite-past-condemnations\/"},"addvideo":"","video_duration":"","farsit":"\u0686\u0631\u062e\u0634 \u0641\u0627\u062d\u0634 \u0637\u0627\u0644\u0628\u0627\u0646: \u0627\u0632 \u0645\u0645\u0646\u0648\u0639\u06cc\u062a \u062a\u0635\u0648\u06cc\u0631 \u0628\u0647 \u062e\u0631\u06cc\u062f \u0641\u0644\u0645\u200c\u0647\u0627\u06cc \u0647\u0646\u062f\u06cc","target":"0","top_stories":"0","top":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-picture"],"acf":{"myctype":"","target":false,"top_stories":false,"top":false,"farsit":"\u0686\u0631\u062e\u0634 \u0641\u0627\u062d\u0634 \u0637\u0627\u0644\u0628\u0627\u0646: \u0627\u0632 \u0645\u0645\u0646\u0648\u0639\u06cc\u062a \u062a\u0635\u0648\u06cc\u0631 \u0628\u0647 \u062e\u0631\u06cc\u062f \u0641\u0644\u0645\u200c\u0647\u0627\u06cc \u0647\u0646\u062f\u06cc"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.5 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Taliban Fighters Embrace Bollywood Culture Despite Past Condemnations<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a surprising twist, Taliban fighters, previously educated in strict religious schools and opposed to visual media, are now frequenting video rental shops and engaging with Bollywood films and music. Shopkeepers in Kabul report that while the general population faces economic challenges and turns away from entertainment, these fighters indulge in the very cultural expressions they once abhorred. Analysts suggest this behavior reflects a deeper identity crisis among a generation torn between extremist ideologies and a desire for cultural connection.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ariananews.co\/en\/picture\/taliban-fighters-embrace-bollywood-culture-despite-past-condemnations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taliban Fighters Embrace Bollywood Culture Despite Past Condemnations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a surprising twist, Taliban fighters, previously educated in strict religious schools and opposed to visual media, are now frequenting video rental shops and engaging with Bollywood films and music. 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