The Taliban are replacing various murals around Kabul that depict United States-related and other Western events with victory messages of their own, according to multiple reports.
Images published in recent days show the murals, including one memorializing the U.S.-Taliban peace agreement, being painted over with various slogans touting the Taliban’s Aug. 15 takeover of the country.
A mural depicting Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar shaking hands after signing the peace deal ensuring a U.S. troop withdrawal was replaced with a quote calling the Taliban the “true defenders” of Afghanistan, according to the Guardian. Khalilzad represented the U.S. during the recent reconciliation effort in Afghanistan, and Baradar was chosen to be acting deputy prime minister of the Taliban-led government.
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And it begun. The Taliban have started painting over our murals. They started with the historic one that marked the signing of #DohaDeal. #BaradarKhalilzadMural is no more. Instead, the black and white message says don’t trust the enemy’s propaganda, quoting Mullah Haibatullah. pic.twitter.com/Pls4McUQkj
— Omaid H. Sharifi-امید حفیظه شریفی (@OmaidSharifi) September 3, 2021
Another mural that had depicted Japanese doctor and aid worker Tetsu Nakamura, who was killed in an ambush in Afghanistan in 2019, now bears a slogan declaring “victory” for the country and the Taliban, the report added.
Omaid Sharifi, who co-founded art group Artlords, which is responsible for the original paintings, expressed devastation over the loss of the murals.
“Whenever I see one of them destroyed, I feel like a part of me is getting destroyed and punished as well,” he told the outlet. “These murals not only belong to me or the Artlords, they belong to the people of Afghanistan because for each of them we invited 50 to 200 people to paint them.”
Sharifi said the group’s goal was “to promote critical thinking and put pressure on the government to accept people’s demands.”
“Taliban was and is an armed movement that only understands guns, violence, beating, beheading, suicide vests, and bombs. There is no vocabulary about art in the Taliban’s dictionary,” he continued. “They even cannot imagine art. I think they don’t understand it. That’s why they are destroying it.”
Other murals throughout the city depicted George Floyd, whose 2020 death sparked protests for racial justice throughout the U.S. last summer, and Afghan refugees drowning in Iran.
The Taliban have also painted their flag outside the building that previously housed the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. The State Department has withdrawn diplomatic staff from the country, relocating operations to Qatar.
Entrance to the (former?) US embassy in Kabul today
Murals freshly painted over with a giant Taliban flag pic.twitter.com/ASE4I0zvoG
— Emma Graham-Harrison (@_EmmaGH) September 6, 2021
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It’s unclear whether U.S. diplomats will return to Kabul following the military’s Aug. 31 exit. President Joe Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, recently doubted the prospect of the U.S. “ever” recognizing the Taliban-led government, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asserted that any legitimacy the U.S. grants to the Taliban must be “earned” with respect for human rights.
Still, some on the Right, including former U.S. Ambassadors to the United Nations Nikki Haley and John Bolton, have predicted the Taliban-controlled government will be recognized by international organizations.
