A Taliban fighter stands guard as women wait in line during a World Food Programme food distribution in Kabul on Nov 6, 2021.
(HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP)
KABUL – The Taliban administration has released a set of restrictions on Afghan media, including banning television dramas that included female actors and ordering women news presenters to wear "Islamic hijab".
Afghanistan's Ministry of Vice and Virtue set out nine rules this week, a Taliban administration spokesman said on Tuesday, largely centered on banning any media that contravened "Islamic or Afghan values".
Some edicts were targeted specifically at women, a move likely to raise concerns among the international community.
"Those dramas…or programs in which women have acted, should not be aired," the rules said, adding that female journalists on air should wear "Islamic hijab" without defining what that meant.
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Though most women in Afghanistan wear headscarves in public, the Taliban's statements that women should wear "Islamic hijab" have often in the past worried women's rights activists who say the term is vague and could be interpreted conservatively.
Though Taliban officials have sought to sought to publicly assure women and the international community that women's rights will be protected since they took over Afghanistan on Aug 15, many advocates and women have remained skeptical.
During the Taliban's previous rule, strict curbs were placed on women's ability to leave the house, unless accompanied by a male relative, or to receive education.
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