the taliban have arrested a popular afghani fashion model and three of his colleagues accusing them of disrespecting islam and the quran according to videos released by afghanistans new rulersajmal haqiqi is popular in afghanistan for his fashion shows youtube clips and modelling events he appeared handcuffed in videos posted on twitter by the taliban intelligence agency on tuesdayas reported by ap in one widely circulated and contentious video haqiqi is seen laughing as his colleague ghulam sakhi who is known to have a speech impediment that he uses for humour recites verses of the quran in arabic in a comical voice after carrying out arrests the taliban released a video of haqiqi and his colleagues standing in jail uniforms and apologizing to the taliban government and religious scholarsread alsoviolations of womens rights in taliban led afghanistan growing hrw raises concernkabul the list of taliban violations of the rights of women and girls is long and growing said heather barr womens rights division at human rights watch hrw as she raised growing concerns about the violation of the rights in the country when the taliban announced last month that women andafghan musicians flee taliban wrath face pakistan raids on illegal refugeesislamabad more than 200 lowprofile afghan musicians have migrated to pakistan to escape the wrath of the taliban rule following in the footsteps of their affluent colleagues who have fled to the us europe and australia after the fall of the americansponsored regime in kabul in august 2021 butthe video was accompanied by a tweet in the dari language saying no one is allowed to insult quranic verses or sayings of the prophet muhammadlater wednesday amnesty international released a statement urging the taliban to immediately and unconditionally release haqiqi and his colleagues as reported by apap also reported that in kabul taliban officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment and it was not clear what measures the model and his colleagues face under the talibanrun judiciary the families of the arrested models could also not immediately be reached for commentsince they came into power again last august during the final weeks of the us troop pullout from the country the taliban have imposed strict measures according to their harsh interpretation of islamic law particularly curbing the rights of women and minoritiesthe taliban consider criticism and anything perceived as disrespectful of islam as a punishable crime ap reported that amnesty said since their takeover the taliban have been using intimidation harassment and violence on anyone who has expressed support for human rights or modern values especially human rights defenders women activists journalists and members of academia among others