Night letters have been a tactic employed by the Taliban and other extremist groups in Afghanistan to intimidate supporters of secular government and education.^[1]

A shabnama (Persian: شبنامه, lit. 'night letter') is a pamphlet communicating warnings or direction, which are surreptitiously distributed.^[2] Shabnama have been found throughout Iranian history. Shabnameh were widely distributed in the 20th century in Iran over the course of several revolutionary movements. An early 20th century example would be following the Persian Constitutional Revolution, when shabnameh were distributed in Tehran decrying the occupation of parts of Iranian territory by Russian troops,^[3] and against the changing of the legal examination laws.^[4]

In the late 1970s, Israeli peace activists belonging to the Shelly Party, a small left-wing party then holding two seats in the Knesset, distributed numerous such night letters in the postboxes of Tel Aviv houses. The leaflets contained eye-witness testimonies on severe human rights violations committed by IDF soldiers in the Occupied Territories, whose publication was forbidden by the military censorship. The leaflets were unsigned and at the time the party denied any connection with them. Only many years later did Uri Avnery, at the time Knesset member for Shelly, admit to having composed the leaflets and organised their distribution, stating that this act was justified since the censorship had abused its power to withhold information from the public.

• Samizdat: a similar form of surreptitious dissident literature in the Soviet Union

• The Taliban Insurgency and an Analysis of Shabnamah (Night Letters). Thomas H. Johnson, Small Wars and Insurgencies Vol. 18, No. 3, 317–344, September 2007