Afghanistan: TV presenters cover their faces to go on air by order of the Taliban

The presenters of the main television channels of Afghanistan went on the air on Sunday covering their faces, following an order from the taliban a day after having challenged her.

Since his return to power last year, the taliban have imposed a series of restrictions on civil societymany of them aimed at limiting the rights of women.

LOOK: The Taliban again force Afghan women to cover themselves from the face to the feet with the burqa

At the beginning of the month, the supreme head of the taliban issued an order according to which women were required to cover themselves completely in public, including their faces, ideally with the traditional burqa.

Previously, just a bandana covering the hair was enough.

LOOK: Afghanistan: Taliban order the ban of TikTok and the video game PUBG

The dreaded Afghan Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice he had ordered the TV presenters to do it before Saturday.

TOLOnews anchor Thamina Usmani speaks during a live broadcast in Kabul on May 22, 2022. (Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)

But the women journalists decided not to obey that order on Saturday, and went on the air, live, without hiding their faces.

But On Sunday, the women wore full veils, revealing only their eyes and forehead when presenting the news on TOLOnews, Ariana Television, Shamshad TV and 1TV.

“We have resisted and we are against the use” of the full veil, Sonia Niazi, presenter of TOLOnews, told AFP.

“But TOLOnews has been under pressure, (the Taliban) said that any presenter who appeared on the screen without a face covering should be assigned another job,” he said.

“Forced”

TOLOnews director Khpolwak Sapai claimed that the channel had been “forced” to implement the order for its staff.

“They have told us: you are obliged to do it. They must. There is no other solution”Sapai told AFP.

“Yesterday they called me on the phone and told me in strict terms to do it. Therefore, we do not do it by choice, but forced”, lament.

Mohamad Sadeq Akif Mohajir, spokesman for the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, stated that the authorities did not intend to force the presenters to leave their employment.

“We are happy that the channels have correctly exercised their responsibility,” he told AFP.

Restrictions on freedoms

The Taliban have ordered that women who work in the government be fired if they do not comply with the new dress code.

Employees also risk being suspended if their wives or daughters don’t.

Having returned to power in mid-August, the Taliban promised to establish a more tolerant and flexible regime than during their first regime, between 1996 and 2001.

But in recent months they have resumed the crackdown on the opposition and the erosion of freedoms, especially of women in education, work and daily life.

They began by requiring women to wear at least a hijab, a scarf that covers the head but leaves the face visible. Then, at the beginning of May, they imposed the use of the full veil in public, preferably the burqa, which was already mandatory in his first government.

In the two decades after the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, many women in the conservative camp continued to wear the burqa. But most Afghan women, including TV presenters, opted for the headscarf.

Television channels stopped broadcasting series and soap operas starring women, by order of the Taliban.

Source: Elcomercio