Taliban Enforces Order For Female TV Presenters To Cover Their Faces

The Taliban has also said female presenters could wear a medical mask instead
The Information and Culture Ministry previously announced that the policy was “final and non-negotiable

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EKO HOT BLOG reports that Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have started to enforce a new order requiring all female TV news anchors in the country to cover their faces while on air.

After the order was announced Thursday, only a handful of news outlets complied. But on Sunday, most female anchors were seen with their faces covered after the Taliban’s Vice and Virtue Ministry began enforcing the decree.

The Information and Culture Ministry previously announced that the policy was “final and non-negotiable”.

“It is just an outside culture imposed on us, forcing us to wear a mask, and that can create a problem for us while presenting our programs,” said Sonia Niazi, a TV anchor with Afghanistan’s TOLOnews.

Niazi told Al Jazeera that for the first time, she “wasn’t feeling good at all”, while presenting programmes.

“This decree is unpredictable for all female presenters, because Islam has not commanded us to cover our faces,” Niazi said.

“Every Islamic scholar and political figure has opposed this decree.”

The Taliban has also said female presenters could wear a medical mask instead. Regardless, Niazi said she feels trapped by the order to cover her face.

“If such decrees are issued and imposed on women, then women across Afghanistan will be eliminated, as we see now that women are being gradually eliminated,” she said.

FURTHER READING

In an act of solidarity with female colleagues, the channel’s male personnel covered their faces with masks, including the main evening news reader.

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Yinka Akanbi

Yinka is an aesthete and a cosmopolite.