Afghanistan’s Taliban have arrested at least four men for dressing up as characters of the British crime drama series Peaky Blinders, calling it a “violation of Islamic values”.
The four Afghan men, all in their early 20s, were arrested in western Herat province and sent to a rehabilitation centre, Taliban officials said on Sunday.
Striking videos and photos of the “Shelby family” in Herat’s Jebrael township have gone viral on Afghan social media and received millions of views. The videos show four Afghan men, dressed in sharp suits with waistcoats, flat caps and overcoats, with stoic expressions as they walk around the town on foot and cars.
They are also seen smoking cigar-like cigarettes in the videos.
Peaky Blinders is a British historical crime drama series set in the UK’s Birmingham. It follows the fictional Peaky Blinders crime gang in the backdrop of the First World War. It features, among others, Cillian Murphy, starring as Tommy Shelby, Helen McCrory as Elizabeth "Polly" Gray, Paul Anderson as Arthur Shelby, and Sophie Rundle as Ada Shelby.
The Taliban said they have arrested the four for promoting foreign culture and they have been sent for behaviour correction at a rehabilitation centre.
“A programme for their correction has begun. We, praise be to God, are Muslims and Afghans; we have our own religion, culture and values,” said Saif Khyber, a spokesperson for the Taliban’s ministry for the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice.
“We have saved this country from the spread of corrupt cultures through great sacrifices, and now we will defend it as well,” he said, adding that the four men’s behaviour was not in line with “Islamic values and Afghan culture”.
The Taliban has accused the four of spreading “foreign film-style acts” and asked them to issue an apology. They have expressed “remorse” after receiving “necessary guidance”, the ministry officials said, without sharing details of the conditions under which an apology was presented.
In Afghanistan, even fashion has consequences. This week, four young men from Herat were arrested by the Taliban for the unforgivable crime of dressing like Thomas Shelby from Peaky Blinders. No weapons, no gang warfare. Only flat caps and long coats proving far too threatening… pic.twitter.com/fBT4PK9oOu
— BILAL SARWARY (@bsarwary) December 10, 2025
The Taliban have instructed Afghan men inside the country to compulsorily maintain long beards and follow a dress-code of traditional Afghan salwar kameez, with a hat or a turban – in a push to move away from the western dressing of T-shirts and pants.
Afghanistan’s de facto regime follows their hardline interpretation of Sharia law, which is also the law banning education of girls and women. They have also banned any means of entertainment, including music, television, playing of musical instruments, calling it forbidden under their Sharia law.
The second term of the Taliban has been compared to its rule in the 1990s when most human rights faced restrictions.
Such measures have isolated the Taliban in the international community, which has not offered it an official recognition, despite more than four years of being in power in Afghanistan.
The men, in interviews before their arrests, had expressed the urge to take the “classic dressing style” to the people of his country.
“We want to go to all provinces of Afghanistan and showcase the culture and different types of clothing in Afghanistan in future globally,” said Asghar Hussaini, who dons the costume of the main character Tommy.
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