WAKIL KOHSAR via AFP Tolo News Channel TV presenter Sonia Niazi appeared on TV this Sunday with her face covered after appearing uncovered the day before.
AFGHANISTAN – A gesture of rebellion quickly suppressed. The hosts of the major Afghan television networks appeared on the air this Sunday, May 22, with their faces covered, fulfilling an order from the Taliban a day after they resisted. Since returning to power last year, the Taliban have imposed a series of restrictions on civil society, many aimed at forcing women into their strict understanding of Islam.
In early May, the Taliban supreme leader ordered women to cover themselves fully in public, including the face, ideally with the burqa, a full-length veil with a mesh of fabric at eye level. In the past, just a scarf covering your hair was enough.
The feared Afghan Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice had ordered female TV presenters to comply by Saturday.
The journalists initially decided not to comply with this order and went on the air live without hiding their faces. Before turning around. On Sunday, female presenters wore full veils leaving only their eyes and forehead visible to present the news on TOLOnews, Ariana Television, Shamshad TV and 1TV.
The “restricted and enforced” chains
“We resisted and were against wearing” the full veil, assured Sonia Niazi, moderator of TOLOnews. “But TOLOnews was pressured, (the Taliban) saying that any presenter who appeared on screen without a face covering should get another job,” she said.
TOLOnews director Khpolwak Sapai said the channel was “forced” by its staff to enforce the order. “We were told: You have to do it. You need to. There is no other solution,” explained the director of the chain. “I got a call on the phone yesterday and was strictly instructed to do it. So we don’t do it voluntarily, but forced and coerced,” he lamented.
Mohammad Sadeq Akif Mohajir, spokesman for the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, said the authorities have no intention of ousting the presenters from their jobs. “We are glad that the broadcasters have taken their responsibility properly,” he told the AFP news agency.
Attacks on liberties multiply
The Taliban regained power in August 2021 and announced a more flexible regime than during their first harsh rule. Since then, however, they have ceaselessly restricted freedoms and repressed opponents, attacking above all the areas of education, work and everyday life, which primarily affects Afghan women.
The Taliban have ordered women working in the government to be fired if they do not conform to the new dress code. They also required women to wear at least a hijab, a scarf that covers the head but reveals the face. Then, in early May, they ordered them to wear a full veil in public, preferably the burqa, which had been mandatory during their 1996-2001 tenure.
In the twenty years since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001, many conservative rural women had continued to wear the burqa. But most Afghan women, including TV presenters, had opted for the headscarf.
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