It’s a bleak Thursday morning on TOLOnews, Afghanistan’s premier independent news channel. The day before, staff were told that the Taliban had ordered female hosts to cover their faces on air.
The order came Wednesday from the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Immorality, which replaced the Ministry of Women after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August.
In the newsroom, based in the center of Kabul, two presenters cried in conversation with the CNN .
“They want women removed from screens. They are afraid of an educated woman,” says Khatera, 27, who has anchored the morning news for the past five months.
“First they deprived girls of going to school and then they came after the media. I’m sure they don’t want the presence of women in general,” she adds.
During the Thursday morning editorial meeting, a group of about 30 employees, more than a third of them women, discuss the day’s agenda. TOLOnews news and its two sister television channels run behind them, along with those of international news agencies.
Station director Khpolwak Sapai tells staff he was considering closing the channel after receiving the government’s order. But then he says that if the women on the team are willing to anchor with their faces covered, they can do it.
Months ago, the presenters had already adjusted to the Taliban’s takeover, using scarves to hide their hair.
The international community has made it clear that respect for women’s rights and the education of girls and young people will be a fundamental condition for the recognition that Afghanistan’s new rulers seek.
But many Afghan women fear the future.
The latest decree adds to a long list of challenges already faced by Afghanistan’s main independent news channel over the past nine months, including the flight of more than 90% of its staff after the Taliban came to power.
“All the reporters who worked in this room – all the presenters, men and women – left,” Sapai tells CNN in an interview at his office. “And all the producers… All the human resources that worked at TOLOnews left. At the management level, I was alone,” he said. “I just thought about keeping the screen on so it wouldn’t go dark. I can’t believe I did it.”
Amidst the chaos, Sapai didn’t have time to fear for her own safety as she concentrated on how to keep the lights on.
Now, the network’s presenters, who had their rights kept for twenty years, fear a setback.
What should we do? We do not know. We were ready to fight to the end to do our job, but they won’t let us,” says anchor Tahmina, 23, in tears.
“It’s a psychological and demotivating prison”, he adds. “We have no motivation to appear on screen freely and openly.”
His colleague Heela, who used to be in front of the cameras, now works as a producer for unsafe reasons.
A group of presenters and producers at TOLOnews from Afghanistan.
The fear is not unfounded. In the past five years alone, 24 journalists have been killed in Afghanistan, according to data compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Still, the network holds on-air debates about Taliban attire and whether they are advocated by Islam. And they even invite the Taliban authorities to debate these issues, sometimes with a presenter.
Across town, Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid was attending a meeting with local journalists to mark late May 3rd World Press Freedom Day. We stopped him to ask why women have to cover their faces.
“It’s a ministry council,” he replies. When asked if wearing it is mandatory, Mujahid responds that “they must wear it” and makes a comparison with wearing masks during the pandemic. “It’s like during the covid-19 pandemic, when the mask was mandatory”.
Source: CNN Brasil
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