2 yıl önce

Taliban orders Afghan TV channels to stop screening women actors

The Taliban has introduced a new TV guideline that calls for Afghan networks to cease broadcasting shows that do not comply with religion and Afghan values.

AFP

The Taliban also called on women television journalists to wear hijabs while presenting their reports.

Taliban authorities have issued a new ''religious guideline'' that called on Afghanistan's television channels to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring women actors.

The directive was issued by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice on Sunday and was widely circulated on social media networks.

''These are not rules but a religious guideline'," ministry spokesman Hakif Mohajir told AFP.

The Taliban also called on women television journalists to wear hijabs while presenting their reports.

The ministry's directives included films or programmes in which the Prophet Muhammad or other revered figures are shown, asking channels to refrain from airing such shows.

It called for banning films or programmes that were against religion and Afghan values.

Afghan media before the Taliban

The Taliban's guideline for TV networks comes after two decades of explosive growth for independent Afghan media under the Western-backed governments.

Dozens of television channels and radio stations were set up with Western assistance and private investment soon after the Taliban were toppled in 2001.

During the past 20 years, Afghan television channels offered a wide range of programmes, from an ''American Idol'' style singing competition to music videos to several Turkish and Indian soap operas.

When the group previously ruled from 1996 to 2001, there was no Afghan media to speak of. They had banned television, movies and most other forms of entertainment, deeming it immoral.

People caught watching television faced punishment, including having their set smashed. Ownership of a video player could lead to a public lashing.

There was only one radio station, Voice of Sharia, that broadcast propaganda.

Despite insisting they will rule more moderately this time around, the Taliban has already proved this claim was unfounded.