Since seizing energy final 12 months, the Taliban have imposed a slew of restrictions on civil society, particularly on ladies and women to adjust to the group’s austere model of Islam.
This month Afghanistan’s supreme chief Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a diktat for girls to cowl up absolutely in public, together with their faces, ideally with the standard burqa.
The scary Ministry for Promotion of Advantage and Prevention of Vice ordered ladies tv presenters to comply with go well with.
After defying the order a day earlier, presenters on Sunday wore full hijabs and veils that left solely their eyes on view throughout main channels together with TOLOnews, Ariana Tv, Shamshad TV and 1TV.
“As we speak, they’ve imposed a masks on us, however we are going to proceed our wrestle utilizing our voice,” Sonia Niazi, a presenter for TOLOnews, advised AFP after presenting a bulletin.
“I’ll by no means ever cry due to this order, however I would be the voice for different Afghan women.”
The diktat was an try to push ladies journalists to give up their jobs, Niazi mentioned.
“It’s like stripping off your id,” she added.
“Regardless of this we need to increase our voice… We are going to come to work till the Islamic Emirate removes us from public area or forces us to take a seat at dwelling.”
– ‘Not by alternative however drive’ – Lima Spesaly, a presenter with information community 1TV, mentioned it was troublesome working beneath the Taliban authorities however she was prepared for a combat.
“We are going to proceed our wrestle till our final breath,” Spesaly advised AFP, minutes earlier than occurring air.
TOLOnews director Khpolwak Sapai mentioned the channel had been compelled to make its ladies presenters comply with the order.
“I used to be referred to as on the phone yesterday and was advised in strict phrases to do it. So, it isn’t by alternative however by drive,” Sapai mentioned.
Girls presenters had been beforehand solely required to put on a scarf.
Male journalists and staff at TOLOnews on Sunday wore face masks on the channel’s places of work in Kabul in solidarity with the ladies presenters.
Different feminine staff continued to work with their faces seen.
– ‘Menace’ – Ministry spokesman Mohammad Akif Sadeq Mohajir mentioned authorities appreciated that broadcasters had noticed the gown code.
“We’re pleased with the media channels that they applied this duty in an excellent method,” he advised AFP.
Mohajir mentioned authorities weren’t in opposition to ladies presenters.
“We’ve no intention of eradicating them from the general public scene or sidelining them, or stripping them of their proper to work,” he mentioned.
The supreme chief’s decree ordered authorities to fireplace ladies authorities staff in the event that they fail to comply with the gown code.
Males working in authorities additionally threat suspension if their wives or daughters don’t comply.
“It’s a menace to ladies as a result of no woman desires her husband, father or brother to be punished due to her actions,” mentioned Niazi.
Throughout 20 years of US-led army intervention in Afghanistan, ladies and women made marginal features within the deeply patriarchal nation.
Quickly after resuming management, the Taliban promised a softer model of the cruel Islamist rule that characterised their first stint in energy from 1996 to 2001.
However they’ve since barred ladies from travelling alone and prevented teenage women from attending secondary colleges.
Within the 20 years after the Taliban had been ousted from workplace in 2001, many ladies within the conservative countryside continued to put on a burqa.
However most Afghan ladies, together with tv presenters, opted for the Islamic headband.
Tv channels have already stopped exhibiting dramas and cleaning soap operas that includes ladies, on the order of Taliban authorities.