The Taliban have shut down one of the last remaining operational women-run radio stations in northwest Afghanistan, claiming it was broadcasting music in the holy month of Ramadan.
Radio Sadai Banuwan (Women’s Voice Radio) was the only station run by women in Badakhsan province and will remain closed for an unspecified period of time, the regional director of the Department of Culture and Information, Muezudin Ahmadi, was quoted as saying. by the Europa Press news agency.
The station’s director, Najia Sorosh, told the Afghan news network Tolo that the music was broadcast by mistake and that it was actually a naat, a poetic chant in honor of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Taliban, on the other hand, affirm that those responsible for the station had already been warned.
“The women did not listen, so we decided to close the radio,” argued the provincial head of Information, Hekmatulá Mohamadi.
Local Badakhsan journalists called on the Taliban to reconsider their decision, which deals a new blow to women’s job performance, increasingly restricted since the extremist group’s return to power in August 2021.
For the UN, the restrictions imposed in the name of the rigid interpretation of the sharia (Islamic law) generate a “gender apartheid”.
Since the return to power, women have been losing day after day some of the rights they had won over the last 20 years, including access to education.
In addition, many women who were able to get divorced under the government that ruled during the US occupation are being forced to return to their ex-husbands, from whom they distanced themselves due to the violence they exercised on them on a daily basis.
Source: Ambito
