Hayatullah Mohajir Farahi, the Taliban's Deputy Minister of Information and Culture, defended the group's ban on the distribution and publication of dozens of books, saying that banning books is a "common practice" in many countries.

Farahi added that the Taliban has banned some books in order to build a "single nation" in Afghanistan.

In an interview with the group's controlled national television, the Taliban official said that "all over the world" governments have adopted different methods regarding the ban on books.

In "neighbouring countries, Arab countries and even Europe", he said, books that contradict their values are banned.

"This issue is not limited to Afghanistan," Farahi said. “Throughout history as well as in the current world, it is a common occurrence that governments in some cases give themselves the right to ban certain books."

After coming to power in Afghanistan, the Taliban, along with imposing other restrictions on freedom of expression, have banned hundreds of books in the fields of politics, religion, art and culture, history, literature, and philosophy and collected them from libraries and bookstores.

The Taliban has called the books "undesirable" and "contrary to Afghan and Islamic values".

Critics of the Taliban, however, say that by removing books, the group seeks to strengthen the intellectual foundations of its ideology in society.