Taliban Ban Female Actors on TV Programs

jpnn.com, KABUL - The Taliban government has issued a number of restrictions on Afghan media, including banning television series starring women.

The Islamic fundamentalist group also requires female news readers on television to wear the Islamic hijab.

Afghanistan's Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice established nine media regulations this week, mostly banning any media that went against "Islamic or Afghan values", a Taliban government spokesman said Tuesday.

Some of the restrictions are specifically targeted at women, a move that has the potential to cause concern for the international community.

"Those dramas…or programmes in which women have acted, should not be aired,” the rules said.

The law also obliges female journalists who broadcast to wear the Islamic hijab without defining what that means.

While most women in Afghanistan are already veiled, the Taliban's past statement that women should wear the Islamic hijab has worried women's rights activists. They consider the term unclear and can be interpreted conservatively.

The law has come under fire from international watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW), which says media freedom in Afghanistan is declining.