Taliban to Afghan network: ‘Stop airing shows with female actors’ – Times of India

Kabul: Afghanistan’s Taliban officials on Sunday issued a new “religious guideline”, calling on the country’s television channels to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring female actors.
In the first such directive issued to the Afghan media for the promotion of virtue and the Vice of Prevention, the Taliban also called on female television journalists to wear the Islamic hijab while presenting their reports.
The ministry also asked the channels not to air films or programs featuring Prophet Muhammad or other respected figures.
It called for a ban on films or programs that were against Islamic and Afghan values.
“These are not rules but religious guidelines,” ministry spokesman Hakif Mohajir told AFP.
The new directive was widely circulated on social media networks late Sunday.
Despite insisting that they would rule more sparingly this time, the Taliban have already imposed rules on what women can wear to university, and beaten up several Afghan journalists despite promising to uphold press freedom. and disturbed.
The Taliban’s guidelines for TV networks come after two decades of explosive growth for independent Afghan media under Western-backed governments, which ruled the country until August 15, when Islamists took power.
Dozens of television channels and radio stations were established with Western aid and private investment soon after the Taliban coup in 2001.
During the past 20 years, Afghan television channels offered a wide range of programs from several Turkish and Indian soap operas as well as “American Idol”-style singing contests to music videos.
When Islamists first ruled from 1996 to 2001, there was no Afghan media to speak of—they banned television, movies, and other forms of entertainment deemed immoral.
Those caught watching TV faced punishment, including breaking their sets. Ownership of a video player may result in public flouting.
There was only one radio station, Voice of Sharia, which broadcast propaganda and Islamic programming.