Former Taliban communications minister appointed their mayor in Herat

Taliban leader has appointed Hamdullah Nomani, their former minister of communications, as their mayor in Herat, two weeks after he was removed from the ministry post.

Nomani was removed from his post as Taliban minister of communications about two weeks ago and replaced by Abdul Ahad Fazli, the Taliban governor of Faryab province.

Nomani had served as communications minister since July 2025. Before that, he was the Taliban’s minister of urban development and housing, a position he held from early 2022. He also previously served as the Taliban-appointed mayor of Kabul.

During the Taliban’s first regime in the late 1990s, Nomani also held senior administrative roles. He is originally from Ghazni province’s Andar district.

The decree also reassigned Neamatullah Hassan, the Taliban’s mayor in Herat, as deputy head for technical and professional affairs at the Taliban’s General Directorate of Municipalities.

The reshuffle is the latest in a series of internal administrative appointments in which Taliban officials have been repeatedly transferred from one senior post to another rather than replaced by new political or technocratic figures.

Nearly five years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, their governing structure remains dominated by longtime Taliban members and loyalists.

A study by the Middle East Institute previously found that the overwhelming majority of senior Taliban leadership positions are held by members of the movement itself, with little broader political inclusion.

The Taliban have also faced repeated criticism from rights groups and foreign governments for excluding women entirely from senior leadership and cabinet-level positions.