Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities released a new “religious guideline” on Sunday, ordering television stations in the nation to stop airing dramas and soap operas with female actresses.
The Taliban also called on women television journalists to broadcast their news while wearing Islamic hijabs, according to the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice’s first such direction to Afghan media.In addition, the ministry requested that films or programmes depicting the Prophet Mohammed or other venerated figures not be broadcast on television.
It advocated for the outlawing of films or programmes that were antithetical to Islamic and Afghan principles.”These are not rules, but religious guidelines,” Hakif Mohajir, a spokesman for the ministry, told AFP.
Late Sunday, the new directive was widely disseminated on social media networks.Despite promising to rule more moderately this time, the Taliban have already imposed restrictions on what women can wear to university and have battered and harassed many Afghan journalists.
The Taliban’s TV network guidelines follow two decades of spectacular expansion for independent Afghan media under Western-backed regimes that ruled the country until August 15, when the Islamists retook power.
Following the Taliban’s overthrow in 2001, dozens of television and radio stations were established with the help of Western aid and private investment.
Afghan television networks have shown a diverse range of shows over the last two decades, including an “American Idol”-style singing competition, music videos, and Turkish and Indian soap operas.
There was no Afghan media during the Islamists’ prior administration, which lasted from 1996 to 2001, because they outlawed television, movies, and most other forms of entertainment as sinful.
People who were caught viewing television were subjected to harsh punishments, which included having their televisions broken. A public whipping could result from owning a video player.
The only radio station that broadcasted propaganda and Islamic programming was Voice of Sharia.
