Most feminine presenters have been seen with their faces coated whereas on air on Sunday.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have began to implement a brand new order requiring all feminine TV information anchors within the nation to cowl their faces whereas on air.
After the order was introduced Thursday, solely a handful of reports shops complied. However on Sunday, most feminine anchors have been seen with their faces coated after the Taliban’s Vice and Advantage Ministry started imposing the decree.
The Data and Tradition Ministry beforehand introduced that the coverage was “last and non-negotiable”.
“It's simply an out of doors tradition imposed on us, forcing us to put on a masks, and that may create an issue for us whereas presenting our applications,” mentioned Sonia Niazi, a TV anchor with Afghanistan’s TOLOnews.
Niazi informed Al Jazeera that for the primary time, she “wasn’t feeling good in any respect”, whereas presenting programmes.
“This decree is unpredictable for all feminine presenters, as a result of Islam has not commanded us to cowl our faces,” Niazi mentioned.
“Each Islamic scholar and political determine has opposed this decree.”
The Taliban has additionally mentioned feminine presenters might put on a medical masks as a substitute. Regardless, Niazi mentioned she feels trapped by the order to cowl her face.
“If such decrees are issued and imposed on girls, then girls throughout Afghanistan will likely be eradicated, as we see now that girls are being steadily eradicated,” she mentioned.
In an act of solidarity with feminine colleagues, the channel’s male personnel coated their faces with masks, together with the primary night information reader.
A neighborhood media official confirmed his station had obtained the Taliban’s order final week however on Sunday it was compelled to implement it after being informed it was not up for dialogue.
He spoke given that he and his station stay nameless for concern of retribution from Taliban authorities.
‘No foundation in Islam’
Throughout the Taliban’s final time in energy in Afghanistan from 1996-2001, they imposed overwhelming restrictions on girls, requiring them to put on the all-encompassing burqa and barring them from public life and schooling.
After they seized energy once more in August, the Taliban initially appeared to have moderated considerably their restrictions, asserting no gown code for ladies.
However in latest weeks, they've made a pointy, hard-line pivot that has confirmed the worst fears of rights activists and additional sophisticated the Taliban’s dealings with an already distrustful worldwide neighborhood.
Earlier this month, the Taliban ordered all girls in public to put on head-to-toe clothes that leaves solely their eyes seen. The decree mentioned girls ought to depart the house solely when essential and that male kin would face punishment for ladies’s gown code violations, beginning with a summons and escalating to court docket hearings and jail time.
The Taliban management has additionally barred women from attending faculty after the sixth grade, reversing earlier guarantees by Taliban officers that women of all ages can be allowed an schooling.
Fawzia Koofi, former deputy speaker of the Afghan parliament, informed Al Jazeera that the newest order “has no justification”.
“Sure people throughout the Taliban simply tried to impose their very own self-interpreted rules below the identify of faith. It has no foundation in Islam,” Koofi mentioned.
Koofi mentioned that for the reason that Taliban took energy they've issued many decrees eliminating girls’s freedoms and liberties.
“I imagine the Taliban are [focusing on women’s outfits] to shift the general public focus from the primary points the nation is affected by, together with the financial disaster that the Taliban haven't been capable of even challenge one decree to deal with that, to rising corruption, to the battle,” Koofi mentioned.
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