Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
WOMEN PRESENTERS ON Afghanistan’s leading TV channels went on air today without covering their faces, defying a Taliban order that they conceal their appearance to comply with the group’s austere brand of Islam.
Since surging back to power last year the Taliban have imposed a slew of restrictions on civil society, many focused on reining in the rights of women and girls.
Earlier this month Afghanistan’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a diktat for women to cover up fully in public, including their faces, ideally with the traditional burqa.
The feared Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice ordered women TV presenters to follow suit by Saturday.
Previously they had only been required to wear a headscarf.
But broadcasters TOLOnews, Shamshad TV and 1TV all aired live programmes Saturday with women presenters’ faces visible.
“Our female colleagues are concerned that if they cover their faces, the next thing they will be told is to stop working,” said Shamshad TV head of news Abid Ehsas.
“This is the reason they have not observed the order so far,” he told AFP, adding the channel had requested further discussions with the Taliban on the issue.
Taliban orders such as this have caused many female journalists to leave Afghanistan since the hardline Islamists stormed back to power, a woman presenter said.
“Their latest order has broken the hearts of women presenters and many now think they have no future in this country,” she said, requesting not to be named.
“I’m thinking of leaving the country. Decrees like this will force many professionals to leave.”
‘Implement the order’
Mohammad Sadeq Akif Mohajir, spokesman for the vice ministry, said the women presenters were violating the Taliban directive.
“If they don’t comply we will talk to the managers and guardians of the presenters,” he told AFP.
“Anyone who lives under a particular system and government has to obey the laws and orders of that system, so they must implement the order,” he said.
The Taliban have demanded that women government employees be fired if they fail to follow the new dress code.
Men working in government also risk suspension if their wives or daughters fail to comply.
Mohajir said media managers and the male guardians of defiant women presenters would also be liable for penalties if the order was not observed.
During two decades of US-led military intervention in Afghanistan, women and girls made marginal gains in the deeply patriarchal nation.
Soon after they took over, the Taliban promised a softer version of the harsh Islamist rule that characterised their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001.
Since the takeover, however, women have been banned from travelling alone and teenage girls barred from secondary schools.
In the 20 years after the Taliban were ousted from office in 2001, many women in the conservative countryside continued to wear a burqa.
But most Afghan women, including TV presenters, opted for the Islamic headscarf.
Television channels have already stopped showing dramas and soap operas featuring women, following orders from Taliban authorities.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Brave women.
In a society of cowardly men.
* Controlling religious men.
Pity religious people can’t just practice their religion on themselves, and quietly in private.
@Dean: they mostly do
@Dean: that’s not the point.
It has nothing to do with religion and all to do with control and fear.
@John Mulligan: well said.
@John ward: religion allows them this power and control over women. In much the same way as other Islamic nations. So do not say its nothing to do with religion.
@John ward: all religions, to an extent, are about control.
We have the keys to the side gate in heaven because we’re well connected. Give us your money and we’ll let you in when you die.
A self-elected Taliban government, what a nightmare. I hope there are some more moderate people with the guts to take them down once and for all, because there’s no place for medieval religious extremists on this planet, especially in the 21st Century.
So sad these cavemen are in power again. Just so unbelievably sad for women and girls who have to obey these religious zealots. Seriously why would a woman have to cover herself head to toe in that oppressive heat ? Afghan women have no rights at all
An article on women showing their faces in defiance carries a photo of the back of women’s heads…
Weak people use any excuse to rule others, they are pure evil
Anti woman anti life anti joy anti humour anti love death cult created by ignorant hate filled men.
@Johnny King: and anti God.
Any marches or the likes for these women persecuted by this outdated and dangerous religion??
@RJ: The religion was started by a warlord who married a child – but you can’t be talking about that or people might get upset.
@Earth Traveller: similarly with christian religion – Historians place Mary’s age in the range of 12 to 14 years old when Jesus was born.
Ignorant men are the scourge of all that is decent in our world at the moment.
have your say