The situation in Afghanistan

The TV manager: More female reporters - but all have their faces covered

Afghanistan's largest television channel, Tolo TV, has more female reporters and news anchors than ever before. This is what the channel's owner Saad Mosheni told The Times.

However, since the Taliban took power in 2021 – for the second time in Mosheni's life – his female employees present the news with their faces covered. In the middle of the newsroom floor is a curtain, which is used to divide the newsroom into a male and a female section when representatives of the Taliban regime come to visit.

Although the part of the company that produced music and entertainment programs has been forced to close completely, it is still at least not impossible to do journalism in Afghanistan, according to Mosheni.

- In terms of decrees and directives, Taliban 1.0 and Taliban 2.0 are very similar. But when it comes to implementing those directives, they are very different this time. Much more lassiez-faire.

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The Taliban's demands on men: Beards - and no jeans

After introducing very strict rules for how women are allowed to look and behave, Afghanistan's Taliban regime has now begun to tighten the thumb screws for men as well. The Washington Post reports.

Since late August, the law requires Afghan men to wear beards and long hair, and forbids them to dress in a way that "imitates non-Muslims." According to the newspaper, the latter has been widely interpreted as a ban on jeans.

A male resident of Kabul with whom the newspaper spoke says that many men now regret not protesting more loudly when women's rights began to be curtailed.

- If the men had raised their voices then, we might also have found ourselves in a different situation now.