Feminine anchors on Afghanistan’s main information channels appeared on air on Sunday with their faces lined, a day after defying a Taliban order to cover their look on tv.
Since taking energy final yr, the Taliban has imposed a slew of restrictions on civil society, lots of them targeted on curbing the rights of girls and women to adjust to the group’s hard-line Islam.
Earlier this month, Afghanistan’s supreme chief, Hebatullah Akhundzada, instructed ladies to cowl up fully in public, together with their faces, ideally with the standard burqa.
The Ministry of Promotion of Advantage and Prevention of Vice has ordered the fearsome TV presenters to observe swimsuit beginning Saturday.
However the presenters defied the order and went reside with their faces seen, solely to associate with steering on Sunday.
Carrying a full veil and a niqab that left solely their eyes in view, the feminine anchors and reporters broadcast morning newscasts throughout main channels resembling TOLOnews, Ariana Tv, Shamshad TV and 1TV.
“We resisted and have been in opposition to sporting the masks,” Sonia Niazi, a presenter at TOLOnews, informed AFP.
She added, “However TOLOnews was pressed and informed that any presenter who appeared on display with out protecting her face ought to get one other job or just be eliminated.”
“TOLOnews was pressured and we needed to put on it.”
Beforehand, ladies have been solely required to put on a headband.
Khbulwak Sabai, director of TOLOnews, mentioned the channel “needed to” get its workers to observe the order.
“We have been informed that you’re obligated to do that. It’s essential to do it. There isn’t a different method,” Sabai informed AFP.
“I used to be referred to as on the telephone yesterday and informed in stern phrases to take action. So we do it not by selection however by drive.”
“Not in opposition to feminine broadcasters,” an AFP reporter reported that TOLOnews journalists and workers members wore face masks on Sunday on the channel’s workplaces in Kabul in solidarity with the feminine anchors.
