Taliban Orders Afghan Female News Anchors to Cover Themselves On Air

Source: Screenshot

The Taliban has ordered Afghan female news anchors to cover themselves on air – something that they say is “final and non-negotiable.”

“The ruling was announced on Thursday 19 May, to which only a few stations complied, but the Taliban’s Ministry of Vice and Virtue began enforcing it from Sunday with most female anchors seen with their faces covered on-screen since,” according to The Independent.

The order is an example of the Taliban enforcing its control over Afghanistan since taking it over following the U.S. withdrawal from the country last year following almost 20 years of war there.

TV anchor Sonia Niazi of TOLOnews told AFP that her station followed the order.

“We resisted and were against wearing a mask but TOLOnews was pressured and told that any female presenter who appeared on screen without covering her face must be given some other job or simply removed,” she said. “TOLOnews was compelled and we were forced to wear it.”

TOLOnews anchor Farida Sial told the BBC, “It’s OK that we are Muslims, we are wearing hijab, we hide our hair, but it’s very difficult for a presenter to cover their face for two or three hours consecutively and talk like that. [The Taliban] want to erase women from social and political life.”