Muttaqi

Amu: During a live broadcast of the Taliban Foreign Ministry’s annual press briefing on Wednesday, the voices of at least two female journalists who asked questions were muted by the state-run national television broadcaster. The event, led by Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s acting foreign minister, was aired live on state television. When two women — one from Agence France-Presse (AFP) and another from the local outlet Salam Watandar — directed questions to Muttaqi, their audio was cut. The broadcast resumed without interruption after they finished speaking. The incident has drawn renewed attention to Taliban censorship practices and their treatment of women in media. Under the Taliban’s Law on the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, enacted last year, a woman’s voice has been classified as “awrah” — a term used in conservative interpretations of Islamic law to denote something that should be concealed. Click here to read more (external link).