The Taliban have recently changed the sign reading “General Directorate of Traffic” to “General Traffic Police.”

The change by the Taliban’s General Directorate of Traffic has also drawn criticism.

Samie Hamid, a well-known Afghan writer and poet, reacted to the decision by saying: “If we criticize, the Taliban will say, ‘Don’t let ‘traffic police’ become our language.’”

He added that “traffic police” was also a foreign term, while “traffic police” in the new terminology was foreign as well, asking: “How should we criticize? Shouldn’t we look for a local term?”

Meanwhile, Wahid Omar, the former head of the Strategic Communications Office of the Afghan Presidential Palace, wrote sarcastically: “In Kabul, there was a saying that should now be phrased like this: ‘If you were so clever, why didn’t you become general traffic police?’”

The change comes after the Taliban replaced the term “police” with “shurta” in newly approved laws. The Taliban Interior Ministry now officially refers to the institution as the “General Directorate of Traffic Police.”

Previously, the Taliban’s translation of signs across cities into Persian, Pashto and English had also drawn reactions from some citizens, including writers and cultural figures.