There is no doubt that the Taliban movement in Afghanistan is a Deobandi movement. It was launched through Pakistan's Deobandi party, Jamiat-ul-Ulama-e-Islam (JUI) in 1994 with the support of Pakistan's military establishment and Saudi Arabia (Rashid 2008, 72). Most of the leadership and fighting forces of the Taliban had studied in Pakistan's Deobandi madaris (Rashid 2008, 1, 32, 89, 92). Many Deobandi madaris of Pakistan regularly dispatched their students to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban (Rashid 2008, 53, 59, 78, 91). Several ulama of Deobandi madaris in the NWFP and Karachi developed close links with the leadership of the Taliban, and these ulama provided guidance to the Taliban regarding imposition of Shariah. In other words, the Shariah imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan actually represented the Deobandi version of Islam. As such, a closer look at the Taliban version of Deobandi Shariah shall bring forth the true countercultural character of the DMM.

The following discussion about the measures taken by the Taliban to impose Shariah in Afghanistan clearly reveals the countercultural complexion of the Deobandi movement. This discussion heavily borrows from Ahmed Rashid's critically acclaimed book, Taliban: Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia.

After coming into power, the Taliban immediately implemented the Deobandi interpretation of Shariah. They closed down girls’ schools and restricted women's movement outside their homes, smashed TV sets, forbade a whole array of sports and recreational activities and ordered all males to grow long beards (Rashid 2008, 29). At the same time, they established a religious police force called Amr bil Maroof wa Nahi anil Munkar (Promotion of good/virtue and prevention of evil/vice) to announce and implement various measures as part of its Islamization campaign. This religious police force was modelled on a similar government organization in Saudi Arabia (Rashid 2008, 105–6). It is not a coincidence that the Deobandi provincial government in the NWFP also unsuccessfully tried to replicate this model through the Hasba Bill in 2003.