(Kabul) Female presenters from major Afghan TV channels went on the air Saturday without covering their faces, defying a Taliban order to conceal their appearance and thus submit to the group’s austere view of Islam.
Posted at 8:15 a.m.
Updated at 3:51 p.m.
Since returning to power last year, the Taliban have imposed a series of insidious restrictions on civil society, many of which are aimed at limiting women’s rights.
Earlier this month, the Taliban’s supreme leader issued an order that women must cover themselves fully in public, including the face, ideally with the traditional burqa.
Previously, only a scarf covering the hair was enough.
Afghanistan’s dreaded Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice had ordered female TV presenters to comply by Saturday.
But female journalists from TOLOnews, Shamshad TV and 1 TV all went on the air, live, without hiding their faces.
“Our sisters fear that if they cover their faces, the next thing they will be told is to stop working,” said Abid Ehsas, news chief of Shamshad TV.
“That’s why they haven’t respected the order so far,” he told AFP.
Mohammad Sadeq Akif Mohajir, spokesman for the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, warned that the women were violating the Taliban directive.
“If they don’t comply, we will talk to officials,” he told AFP.
“Anyone who lives under a particular system and government must obey the laws and orders of that system, so they must enforce the order,” he said.
The Taliban have ordered that women working in government be fired if they fail to adhere to the new dress code.
Employees also risk being suspended if their wives or daughters do not comply.
The United States demands respect for women’s rights
The United States special envoy for Afghanistan met Saturday in Doha, Qatar with the head of diplomacy of the government installed by the Taliban and recalled the opposition of the international community to the severe restrictions imposed on women.
“Girls must go to school, women must have the right to move freely and work without restrictions to progress towards a normalization of relations” with the unrecognized Taliban government, wrote on Twitter the American special envoy for Afghanistan, Thomas West, after his meeting with the head of diplomacy of the Taliban, Amir Khan Muttaqi.
The two officials also discussed the stabilization of the Afghan economy and the risk of attacks, according to Mr. West.
“The dialogue will continue to support the Afghan people and our national interests,” he added.
When they took power in August after the withdrawal of American troops, the Taliban promised a more flexible regime than during their first rigorous reign between 1996 and 2001.
But in recent months they have begun to repress opposition and impose strict restrictions on women in particular.
In early May, the Taliban’s supreme leader ordered that women must cover themselves fully in public, including the face, ideally with the traditional burqa. Previously, only a scarf covering the hair was enough.
At the end of March, the Taliban made high schools and colleges close to girls, just hours after their reopening, which had been announced for a long time.
After the return to power of the Taliban, Afghanistan saw its economy collapse and unemployment soar, in particular because of the immense liquidity crisis caused by the freezing of billions of assets held abroad, in particular in the USA.