MALE AFGHAN PRESENTERS MASK UP IN SOLIDARITY WITH WOMEN
▶ Only a few outlets have complied with a Taliban order forcing female journalists to cover up
Male Afghan TV presenters are covering their faces in solidarity with their female colleagues who have been forced to obey a Taliban rule on face coverings.
Several male newsreaders wore black masks on Sunday after the militants began enforcing their order requiring all female TV news presenters to cover their faces while on air.
The order has drawn international condemnation from human rights activists.
Only a handful of news outlets have complied with the ban since it was announced last Thursday.
Female presenters were previously required to wear a headscarf but on Sunday, many female presenters were seen with their faces covered, one day after the Taliban’s decree.
This month, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada ordered women to cover their faces in public, ideally with the traditional burqa.
The Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice ordered female TV presenters to follow suit.
The Information and Culture Ministry said the policy is “final and non-negotiable”.
Sonia Niazi, a TV presenter with TOLOnews, said the decree was “an outside culture imposed on us, forcing us to wear a mask, and that can create a problem for us while present our programmes”.
TOLOnews deputy director, Khpolwak Sapai, told AFP that the channel had been forced to make its staff comply with the Taliban order.
“I was called on the telephone yesterday and was told in strict words to do it,” he said. “So, it is not by choice but by force that we are doing it.”
During the previous Taliban regime, which lasted from 1996 to 2001, the militants imposed many oppressive restrictions on Afghan women, requiring them to wear the burqa and barring them from public life and education.
However, after the Taliban were driven out in 2001 by the US and its allies, many women in the country’s conservative, rural provinces continued to wear the burqa.
After the militants seized power again in August last year, they claimed they would treat women differently and initially made no announcements about dress codes.
But in recent weeks they have changed approach, adopting hardline policies that have confirmed the worst fears of human rights activists and further complicated Taliban dealings with an already distrustful international community.
The Taliban this month ordered all women who were out in public to wear head-to-toe clothing that leaves only their eyes visible.
The decree said women should leave the home only when necessary.
Their male relatives would face punishment for any breaches of the women’s dress code, starting with a summons and escalating to court hearings and jail.
The militants have also barred Afghan girls from attending school after the sixth grade, reneging on previous promises by Afghan officials that girls of all ages would be allowed an education.
Forcing us to wear a mask can create a problem for us while we are presenting our programmes
SONIA NIAZI
TOLOnews TV presenter