The Taliban’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce has announced that, from now on, the use of national languages in business licenses, signboards, and product branding will be mandatory, and foreign terminology will be revised.
Shahabuddin Saqib, the ministry’s Deputy Minister for Finance and Administration, said that during a meeting with the Commission for the Reform of Signboards and Advertisements, it was decided that foreign names would not be accepted when issuing new business licenses unless they are translated into the national languages.
According to the ministry, existing licenses written in English or other foreign languages must be revised and brought into compliance with the national languages. The Signboard Reform Commission will conduct regular inspections in markets and share a list of companies requiring corrections to their licenses and signboards with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
Shahabuddin Saqib said that culture forms the foundation of a society and that commercial signboards and advertisements should be aligned with cultural values.
The decision comes as the Taliban have recently begun a process of changing government and administrative names. The Taliban leader had previously ordered that the word “National” be removed from the names of some government institutions and replaced with “General,” while some other Taliban institutions have been given Arabic names.
Writer:Saeed Sameer
