According to the BBC, the Taliban has ordered all female TV presenters and other women appearing on screen in Afghanistan to cover their faces while on air.
The decree was announced to the media on Wednesday.
According to the Taliban Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue’s spokesperson, the new decree will go into effect on May 21.
Two weeks ago, the Taliban ordered that all women in Afghanistan wear a face veil in public or face punishment.
Even since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, women’s rights have been increasingly restricted. They are not allowed to travel without a male guardian, and secondary schools for girls have been closed.
“Shocked hearing the latest news. They are putting indirect pressure on us to stop us presenting on TV,” said a female Afghan journalist working for a local TV station in Kabul to the BBC.
“How can I read the news with my mouth covered? I don’t know what to do now. But I have to work as I am the breadwinner of my family,” the female TV presenter added.
The Taliban Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue’s spokesperson referred to the ruling as “advice” and stated that it is unclear what will happen to those who do not comply with the order.
The latest restriction on Afghan women has been widely condemned on Twitter, with many referring to the decision as yet another attempt by the Taliban government to promote extremism.
“The world deploys masks to protect people from Covid. The Taliban deploys masks to protect people from seeing the faces of women journalists. For the Taliban, women are a disease,” a woman activist tweeted.
Since regaining power in August of last year, the Taliban have taken several controversial steps that have sparked international outrage. Despite assurances that they would be more moderate in their administration this time (the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001), they have yet to allow older girls to resume education and have also implemented rules requiring women and girls to wear veils and have male relatives accompany them in public places.
