Taliban say female Afghan TV presenters must cover faces on air

Tv channel says Taliban order for feminine presenters to cowl their faces is ‘not up for dialogue’.

Basira Joya, 20, presenter on a information programme, data a broadcast on the Zan TV station (girls's tv) in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2017 [File: Rahmat Gul/AP]

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have informed tv broadcasters to make sure that feminine presenters working in native stations cowl their faces when on air, a authorities official mentioned.

The order follows a latest directive from Taliban authorities that Afghan girls should cowl their faces in public and is seen as the most recent signal of a potential return to the Taliban’s ultraconservative rule of the previous and an escalation of restrictions on girls which might be inflicting anger at house and overseas.

Akif Muhajir, a spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Advantage and Prevention of Vice, informed Al Jazeera on Thursday that authorities have knowledgeable all native tv broadcasters that their feminine employees ought to cowl their faces on air.

Muhajir mentioned that the hijab or scarf is required of Muslim girls, and feminine tv presenters with coated faces would function good position fashions for all girls in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s TOLOnews introduced the brand new ruling on its official Twitter account on Thursday, stating that the Taliban’s order for presenters to cowl up was non-negotiable.

“Representatives of the ministries of Vice and Advantage and Data and Tradition referred to as it a ultimate verdict and never up for dialogue,” TOLOnews tweeted.

Based mostly on info obtained by TOLOnews, the order has been issued to all media shops in Afghanistan.

The Islamic Emirate in a brand new order demanded all feminine presenters working in all TV channels to cowl their faces whereas presenting packages… 1/2#TOLOnews

— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) Might 19, 2022

Throughout the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule, it was compulsory for girls to put on the all-encompassing blue burqa or physique veil.

After the group seized energy once more in August 2021, the Taliban initially appeared to have moderated considerably their restrictions on clothes, saying no gown code for girls. However in latest weeks, authorities have launched restrictions.

On Might 7, the Taliban introduced that it was now “required for all respectable Afghan girls to put on a hijab”. The decree was the primary for the brand new Taliban regime the place prison punishment was assigned for violation of the gown code for girls.

Most Afghan girls put on a headband for spiritual causes, however many ladies in city areas reminiscent of Kabul don't cowl their faces.

The ministry’s Muhajir informed the Reuters information company on Thursday that feminine presenters may cowl their faces by carrying a medical face masks, as has been broadly used through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mohsin Khan Mohmand contributed reporting from Kabul.