Kabul: Women presenters on Afghanistan's leading news channels went on air on Sunday with their faces covered, a day after defying a Taliban order to conceal their appearance on television. Since seizing power last year, the Taliban have imposed a slew of restrictions on civil society, many focused on reining in the rights of women and girls to comply with the group’s “austere” brand of Islam.
Earlier this month, Afghanistan’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a diktat for women to cover up fully in public, including their faces, ideally with the traditional burqa.
The feared ministry for promotion of virtue and prevention of vice ordered women TV presenters to follow suit from Saturday. But the presenters defied the order and went on air with their faces visible, only to fall in line with the directive on Sunday.
Wearing full hijabs and face-covering veils that left only their eyes in view, women presenters and reporters aired morning news bulletins across leading channels like TOLOnews, Ariana Television, Shamshad TV and 1TV.
“We resisted and were against wearing a mask,” Sonia Niazi, a presenter with TOLOnews, said. “But TOLOnews was pressured and told any female presenter who appeared on screen without covering her face must be given some other job or removed. We were told ‘You are forced to do it. You must do it. There is no other way’,” TOLOnews director Khpolwak Sapai said.
Ministry spokesman Mohammad Akif Sadeq Mohajir said authorities appreciated that media channels had observed the dress code.
