The Taliban rulers in Afghanistan have begun enforcing a new edict that requires all female TV news anchors in the nation to conceal their faces while on air.
Only a few news organizations followed the directive when it was issued on Thursday. However, after the Taliban’s Vice and Virtue Ministry began enforcing the rule on Sunday, most female anchors were seen with their faces covered.
The policy was earlier declared “final and non-negotiable” by the Ministry of Information and Culture.
Taliban authorities had previously instructed television stations to ensure that female presenters on local channels covered their faces while on air.
The decision comes after Taliban authorities recently issued a decree requiring Afghan women to cover their faces in public, and is considered as the latest indicator of a probable return to the Taliban’s ultraconservative rule and an increase in restrictions on women.
The directive places more limitations on Afghan women, including making their clothes illegal.
While the Taliban have long enforced limitations on Afghan women’s bodies, this is the first decree under this regime to attach criminal penalties for violations of the women’s clothing code.
The Taliban’s recently resurrected Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice proclaimed that wearing a hijab, or headscarf, is “mandatory for all respectable Afghan women.”
The “best hijab” of choice, according to the government, is the chadori (a blue-colored Afghan burqa or full-body covering). A lengthy black veil covering a woman’s head to toe is also permissible as a hijab, the statement added.
