Afghan TV stars fold to govt order

Afghanistan – Women presenters on Afghanistan’s leading news channels went on air yesterday with their faces covered, a day after defying a Taliban order to cover up on television.

Since seizing power last year, the Taliban has imposed a slew of restrictions on civil society, many focused on reining in the rights of women and girls to comply with the group’s austere brand of Islam.

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 from Saturday. But they defied the order and went on air with their faces visible, only to fall in line.

“We resisted and were against wearing a mask,” Sonia Niazi, a presenter with TOLOnews, said.

“But TOLOnews was pressured and told any female presenter who appeared on screen without covering her face must be given some other job or simply removed.”

Women presenters had previously only been required to wear a headscarf.