The Taliban government in Afghanistan has ordered female broadcasters to cover their faces whenever they appear on television.
Representatives of the ministries of Vice, Virtue and Information said the order, which has been sent to all media houses in the country, is a final verdict, according to Tolonews, an Afghan media platform.
”Informing MOBY Group of the order, representatives of the ministries of Vice and Virtue and Information and Culture called it a final verdict and not up for discussion,” the platform tweeted on Thursday.
The Taliban, an armed fundamentalist movement, set up certain laws restricting the freedom of females in the country after seizing power in August 2021.
Reports from various human rights groups have described the Taliban’s laws on women as repressive.
In March 2022, the Taliban had announced that girls would not attend secondary schools in Afghanistan.
A student had told Human Rights Watch that the Taliban authorities wanted to make women give up on education.
This law accompanied new laws restricting the movement of women ‘over long distances’. The Taliban also disqualified women from working in the healthcare or education sector.
Heather Barr, associate women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch, said the Taliban’s new edict limits freedom and expression. “In addition to violating women’s rights to freedom and expression, this will also block access to information for people with impaired hearing who lip-read and people who rely on visual speech cues to help them understand people on TV,” Barr tweeted on Thursday.
Afghanistan is currently battling a multifaceted humanitarian crisis as Afghans struggle to make ends meet amidst drought and unemployment.
