Kabul har fallit. Talibanerna har tagit över Afghanistan.

Barbers in Afghanistan's Helmand Province are now prohibited from shaving men's beards and playing music in their shops, according to a statement issued by the province's Taliban-led department of virtue and vice.

The new regulations mark the latest in a series of restrictions placed on the people of Afghanistan based on the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

"You are urgently informed that from today, shaving beards and playing music in barbershops and public baths are strictly prohibited," the local authority said Sunday in a statement.

"If any barbershop or public bath is found to have shaved anyone's beard or played music, they will be dealt with according to the Sharia principles and they will not have the right to complain," the statement added.

The CNN story, published later, says:

"As long as real Islamic environment is not provided for all, women will not be allowed to come to universities or work. Islam first," Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat said on his official Twitter account.

When I read the NYT story this morning I checked the account and found that its was an unverified account, created this month under the name of the new chancellor of Kabul University. The account had curiously used mostly English in its tweets and seemed unusual rough in its wording. The tweet in question, which the NYT quoted incomplete, started with "Folks!"

Something with the account was obviously off so I checked a bit more. It soon turned out that several Afghans had immediately pointed out that the account is a hoax and that the whole story thereby fake.

The Taliban said Tuesday they plan to temporarily enact articles from Afghanistan’s 1964 constitution that are “not in conflict with Islamic Sharia (law)” to govern the country.

An official announcement quoted Abdul Hakeem Sharaee, the Taliban’s acting minister of justice, as telling the Chinese ambassador about the plan in a meeting in Kabul.

“The Islamic Emirate will implement the constitution of the era of former King Mohammad Zahir Shah for the interim period without any content that is in conflict with Islamic Sharia and the principles of the Islamic Emirate,” Sharaee said, using the Taliban's name for their new government.

“Moreover, international laws and instruments which are not in conflict with the principles of Sharia and the Islamic Emirate will be respected, as well,” Sharaee added.

The minister did not discuss the provisions they are using from the constitution that granted women the right to vote and opened the doors for their increased participation in Afghan politics.