Women’s media work may be banned if faces are not covered: AFJC

The Afghanistan Journalists Center reports that the Minister of Virtue and Vice for the Taliban has issued a warning that if female reporters do not cover their faces on television, women’s work in the media may be prohibited.

Expressing concern, the center has called for the cancellation of this Taliban decree.

The Afghanistan Journalists Center stated on Wednesday that Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban’s Minister of Virtue and Vice, raised this issue in a meeting with media representatives in Kabul.

Hanafi warned that if women do not cover their faces when appearing on television or in visual interviews, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban supreme leader may completely ban women’s activities in the media.

The Journalists Center said that this meeting took place on Tuesday with the presence of officials and media representatives at a hotel in Kabul.

The Afghanistan Journalists Center, while warning of the possibility of issuing a directive banning women’s work in the media, urged the Taliban to cancel its new media guidelines and allow journalists and media outlets to continue their activities by public media laws.

This comes that some media representatives informed this center that Abdul Ghafoor Farooq, the spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry of Virtue and vice, recommended to media representatives to observe employees, especially women, wearing a “black covering with only their eyes visible.”

He also urged media officials to refrain from interviewing women whose faces are visible or who are not wearing masks.