Afghan Male News Anchors Cover Faces in Solidarity With Female Colleagues

Male news anchors in Afghanistan are covering their faces with masks in solidarity with their female colleagues. The female news anchors were ordered by the Taliban government to appear on camera with their faces covered beginning last Saturday. They defied the rule for one day before falling into compliance on Sunday. Only a handful of women read news on air in Afghanistan, according to reports, and they have been required up until now to wear a headscarf. The leading Afghan television channel TOLOnews announced on Sunday that its male on-air talent would cover their faces as well “in solidarity with women.” At least one male news presenter on Afghanistan’s 1TV also began wearing a mask to protest the ban on seeing a woman’s face, and published a photo of all of its on-air staff, male and female, covering their faces. Earlier this month, the Ministry of Virtue and Prevention of Vice of the Taliban government ordered Muslim women in Afghanistan to be covered from head to toe, including their faces, framing the order as a requirement of the Quran, Allah, and the Prophet Muhammad. The requirement that women completely cover themselves comes after the Taliban has refused to reopen schools and universities to girls and women, and after it decreed that women can only travel with a male guardian. The last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, in the 1990s, women also were required to wear head-to-toe covering.