All posts tagged: Taliban

Taliban enforces burqa for female journalists: ‘We are the last ones resisting’

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On May 19, female television hosts and journalists working in Afghan broadcasting received a new order from the Taliban: “Cover your face”. Our Observer, an Afghan TV presenter, explains how she received the order and how Afghan journalists have been resisting the Taliban’s resolve to “remove women from society”. The Taliban’s Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice issued the order to female journalists around Afghanistan, to be observed from Saturday, May 21. The Taliban made it clear that “any female presenter who appeared on screen without covering her face must be given some other job or simply removed”, according to Sonia Niazi, a presenter with TOLOnews. The day after the order came in, female journalists from three privately owned media companies in Afghanistan refused to comply, going on air with their faces visible. However, on May 22, they succumbed to the directive, citing “pressure and threats from the Taliban”, wearing a burqa or mask over the bottom half of their faces. Many male journalists and TV presenters in Afghanistan began wearing black …

Afghanistan: Since the return of the burqa, women are slowly disappearing from the streets

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On May 7, the Taliban ordered all Afghan women to wear the full-coverage burqa in public places. Since the decree was put in place, the difference in Afghanistan’s streets is visible. Or rather it’s invisible: women have all but deserted public streets to remain cloistered in their homes. Although our Observer dared to leave home to protest with other women’s rights activists on May 10, she has no illusions about the future that awaits her. “Those women who are not too old or young must cover their face, except the eyes, as per sharia directives, in order to avoid provocation when meeting men who are not mahram (adult close male relatives),” says the decree, which came into force on May 7, announced by Taliban leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. The images of daily life in Kabul, Herat or Mazar-e Sharif on social media show that the order has been followed: women seem to be absent from the streets, markets and parks. Akhundzada specified the consequences for breaking this decree on May 6: “First, the woman wearing immoral …