Afghanistan's Taliban government, which first ruled from 1996 to 2001 and returned to power in August 2021 after the collapse of the Western-backed republic, enforces a strict interpretation of Sunni Hanafi law as state policy, with no legal recognition for other faiths and no constitution currently in force beyond the movement's own decrees.
The 2001 destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, carried out despite international appeals, signaled the first Taliban government's approach to non-Islamic heritage, and the 2021 return has been accompanied by renewed restrictions on Shia Hazara religious practice, alongside the near total disappearance of the country's once-established Sikh and Hindu gurdwaras and temples through emigration.
The United Nations Human Rights Council has repeatedly documented targeted attacks on Hazara Shia communities, including bombings of mosques and schools attributed to the Islamic State-Khorasan Province, a rival Sunni extremist group that considers Shia Islam apostasy. The US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report has for successive years designated Afghanistan a Country of Particular Concern, citing severe restrictions on religious minorities and on Muslims who dissent from the state's official interpretation of Islam.