By Blessing Udeobasi
Female TV presenters in Afghanistan have been ordered to cover their faces while presenting news on air or face consequences.
This is one of the very many restrictions imposed on women’s lives by the Taliban since seizing power from the Afghan government last year.
On Sunday, May 22, Afghan female reporters complied with the order by going on air with their faces covered after disobeying the other just a day before.
According to the BBC, a presenter said women working in the TV industry had resisted but their employers had come under pressure.
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TOLOnews presenter Farida Sial also told the BBC: “It’s OK that we are Muslims, we are wearing hijab, we hide our hair, but it’s very difficult for a presenter to cover their face for two or three hours consecutively and talk like that.”
“They want to erase women from social and political life,” she said.
The women wore hijabs and face-covering veils, to present and report news bulletins and other programmes across popular channels such as TOLOnews, Ariana Television, Shamshad TV and 1TV.
Recall that Taliban’s Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue earlier ordered that all women must wear a face veil in public, or risk punishment.
