Taliban's New Diktat: TV Channels Banned From Airing Shows With Women Actors Under New 'Religious Guidelines'

The ministry also prevented channels from airing films or programmes in which the Prophet Mohammed or other revered figures are shown

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New Delhi:  In the latest diktat Afghanistan's Taliban authorities on Sunday issued a new ''religious guideline'' aimed at bringing down curtains on showing dramas and soap operas in television country's channels featuring women actors. Issued by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Taliban also asked women television journalists to wear Islamic hijabs while presenting their reports, according to the AFP report.

Besides this, the ministry also prevented channels from airing films or programmes in which the Prophet Mohammed or other revered figures are shown.

It has called for banning films or programmes that were against Islamic and Afghan values. While sharing the guidelines, ministry spokesman Hakif Mohajir told AFP, ''These are not rules but a religious guideline."

The guideline was widely circulated on social media networks. Even after the Taiban promised ruling more moderately this time around, the extremist outfit went on to declare rules for women attire at university and beaten and harassed several Afghan journalists despite promising to uphold press freedoms.

The latest guideline for TV networks has been imposed on Afghan media after it has proliferated for two decades under the Western-backed governments that ruled the country until August 15, when the Islamists regained power.

Several television channels and radio stations were established with Western assistance and private investment soon after the Taliban were toppled in 2001.

In the past 20 years, people enjoyed a variety of programmes aired on Afghan television channels including ''American Idol'' style singing competition to music videos, along with several Turkish and Indian soap operas. In its previous rule from 1996 to 2001, there were no Afghan media to mention because they banned television, movies and most other forms of entertainment, deeming it immoral.

People found watching television were subjected to punishment and their set being smashed while owing a video player could mean public lashing. There was only one radio station, Voice of Sharia, that broadcasts propaganda and Islamic programming.