Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the BBC that their government would not officially celebrate Nowruz because, according to him, they would not celebrate ceremonies that are not in Islam, but would not stop people from doing so if they wanted to.
Nowruz has been celebrated as a traditional festival in Afghanistan for a long time and thousands of people take part in it.
The United Nations has also recognized Nowruz as a World Cultural Heritage Site and has designated March 21 as International Nowruz Day.
The Taliban banned the celebration of Nowruz during their first rule.
This is despite the fact that some residents of Mazar-e-Sharif have demanded that Nowruz be officially celebrated as in previous years.
Mazar-e-Sharif hosts thousands of people from different parts of the country on the first day of the month of Hamal every year.
For the past two decades, Nowruz has been celebrated every year in Mazar-e-Sharif and Nowruz will be an official holiday.
Here people go to the deserts on the outskirts of the city where the red flowers bloom and thus celebrate the arrival of spring.
In previous years, Nowruz celebrations began with the raising of a flag at the Sakhi Sahib shrine, which was also attended by many government officials.
This year, the Taliban have not officially banned the celebration of Nowruz, but some officials at the Taliban’s Ministry of Command and Prohibition have called the celebration “un-Islamic.”
No official preparations have been made for the celebration this year.
In previous years, during Nowruz celebrations, Oz sports competitions were also held in Mazar-e-Sharif, Kabul and some other provinces, which attracted a large number of people.
Some reports from Mazar-e-Sharif say that the municipality and the people have taken steps to clean up the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, but no one knows yet whether tomorrow, Monday (March 21), will be the same as in previous years.
Due to the Corona epidemic in the last two years, many people did not attend the Nowruz celebrations.
