The Taliban have ordered female Afghan TV presenters and other women on screen to cover their faces while on air.
Media outlets were told of the decree on Wednesday according to reports.
The ruling comes two weeks after all women were ordered to wear a face veil in public, or risk punishment.
Restrictions are being tightened on women – they are banned from travelling without a male guardian and secondary schools are shut for girls.
One female Afghan journalist working for a local TV station in Kabul, who did not want to be named, said she’d been shocked to hear the latest news.
“They are putting indirect pressure on us to stop us presenting on TV,” she told the BBC.
“How can I read the news with my mouth covered? I don’t know what to do now – I must work, I am the breadwinner of my family.” The new decree will take effect from 21 May, Reuters news agency reported, quoting a spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue.
#AFG A powerful message from an Afghan woman (TOlo TV Host) that needs reflection: This is me, Yalda Ali, a woman -on verge of being eliminated by the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue. We are required to appear like this, hereafter. @bsarwary pic.twitter.com/Gjjhgm0wJf
— Wali Arian (@waliarian) May 19, 2022
The spokesman referred to the ruling as “advice” – it is not clear what will happen to anyone who fails to comply.
“Based on information received by Tolo news, the order has been issued to all media outlets in Afghanistan,” the news channel reported.
The decision is being widely criticised on Twitter, with many calling it another step by the Taliban 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,” one activist tweeted.
The private Shamshad news channel posted a photo of its news presenter wearing a mask, and other similar images are being shared on social media.
In a new development, there are reports that most presenters are defying this orders as they cannot go on air with the burka.
