KABUL — Women presenters on
Afghanistan’s leading TV
channels went on air Saturday without covering their faces, defying a Taliban
order that they conceal their appearance to comply with the group’s austere
brand of Islam.
اضافة اعلان
Since surging back to power last year, the Taliban
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 (order) 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 programs 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 that 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.”
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 characterized their first stint in power from 1996 to
2001. Since the takeover, however, women have been banned from traveling 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.
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