Officials at the Taliban’s Ministry of Culture and Information have denied a recent pronouncement that imposed limitations on shaving beards and women’s use of smartphones in some provinces as an official order, reports Tolo News on September 27. A Member of the Cultural Commission in the Ministry of Culture and Information, Inaamullah Samangani, called the statement invalid. “The Ministry of Virtue and Vice officially announced that the statement has not been issued by the ministry; whatever is on social media is not from the ministry,” he said. The reaction comes as a letter was reportedly distributed in Kapisa, Helmand, and Takhar Provinces where the shaving and trimming of beards and women's ownership of smartphones were prohibited.