KABUL: Afghanistan journalists and activists on Tuesday condemned the new “religious guideline” issued by the Taliban which limited the role of women on television, when Islamists moved to the media muzzle.
Ministry for the promotion of virtues and prevention of representatives on Sundays call television channels to stop showing drama and soap operas that feature female actors.
It also told the announcer not to suggest films or programs that “fight Islamic values or Afghanistan” and request female television journalists wearing Islamic headscarves while presenting their report.
Zan TV, the first Afghan channel managed exclusively by producers and female journalists, said on Twitter that “guidelines threaten media freedom” and reduce “presence of female journalists”.
Interpretation of the Taliban headscarf – which can range from hair that cover fur or full body cover – is unclear, and the majority of Afghan women are wearing a headscarf.
Efforts to regulate the media came three months after the Taliban swept back to power.
Hujatullah Mujadidi, the founding member of the Afghan journalist federation, said that if the guidelines would force “some media outlets, especially television, stopped working”.
Many performances launched to fill TV schedules, especially soap operas produced in India and Turkey, will be inappropriate under new guidelines, making it difficult for channels to produce sufficient results and maintain audiences.
A ministry spokesman said after the announcement that new steps totaled “religious guidelines” rather than rules.
But Qari Abdul Sattar Saeed, a media spokesman for the Taliban Prime Minister, the previous days accused the Afghan media conveying propaganda for “enemies” and said they had to be “treated roughly”.
ASLIA Ahmadzai, a journalist in exile, told AFP that female journalists “would feel threatened”.
Another Afghan journalist who was exiled, who wanted to remain anonymous, described the guidelines as “the first step to ban TV at all, just like in the 90s”.
During the Taliban’s duty in 1996-2001 in power, no Afghan media to be discussed – Islamists prohibit television, films and most forms of other entertainment, consider them immoral.
Even though they insisted they would rule more moderate this time, the Taliban had introduced rules about what women should wear at the university.
Taliban members have also defeated and harassed several Afghan journalists who included protests even though they promised to uphold the press freedom.
Watch Human Rights condemned TV guidelines.
“New media regulations and threats to journalists reflect a wider effort to silence all criticisms of the Taliban government”, said Patricia Gossman, Director of Asia Associate in Human Rights Watch.
Many journalists live in fear because of threats, rights groups add in a statement.
Allegedly that “Taliban officials …
have needed journalists to submit all reports for approval before publication”.
Afghan journalist painted Taliban TV ‘Guide’
