The notorious Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has ordered all TV journalists to appear with their faces covered from Saturday. So it applied a decree by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, according to which women and especially government officials should only appear in public with full veils.
They face dismissal if they break the rules. Fathers, husbands or male guardians of affected women also face penalties, as do TV executives who fail to comply.
“We reacted, we didn’t want to wear masks,” moderator Sonja Niasi of broadcaster TOLOnews told the AFP news agency on Sunday. “But TOLOnews was pressed.” According to her, the broadcaster must transfer or fire all journalists who – as has been the norm until now – only show up with a headscarf. “We were forced to cover our mouths and noses.” TOLOnews director Chpolwak Sapai confirmed Niasi’s statements. “We were told, ‘You have to do this. There is no other way,'” said Sapai. “I was called yesterday and asked in no uncertain terms. We don’t do this voluntarily.”
Enough of movies with women
In solidarity with the moderators, journalists and TOLOnews staff also wore masks in offices on Sunday, an AFP correspondent reported. Meanwhile, other station employees left their faces uncovered. By order of the authorities, television stations have already stopped showing films and series in which women play a role.
After seizing power in Kabul in mid-August, the radical Islamic Taliban promised a more moderate government than during their rule from 1996 to 2001. In recent months, however, a number of women’s freedoms have been curtailed, for example in education. and in the job market. Some Afghan women spoke out against the restrictions, but the Taliban repressed them.