Female news anchors cover faces on air
Women presenters on Afghanistan’s leading news channels went on air yesterday with their faces covered, a day after defying a Taliban order to conceal their appearance on television.
Since seizing 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 to comply with the group’s austere brand of Islam.
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 from Saturday.
But the presenters defied the order and went on air with their faces visible, only to fall in line with the directive yesterday.
Wearing full hijabs and face-covering veils that left only their eyes in view, women presenters and reporters aired morning news bulletins across leading channels like Tolo news, Ariana Television, Shamshad TV and 1TV.
“We resisted and were against wearing a mask,” Sonia Niazi, a presenter with Tolo news, said. “But Tolo news was pressured and told that any female presenter who appeared on screen without covering her face must be given some other job or simply removed.”
Women presenters were previously only required to wear a headscarf.
Tolo news director Khpolwak Sapai said the channel was “forced” to make its staff follow the order. “We were told ‘You are forced to do it. You must do it. There is no other way’,” Mr Sapai said.