KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban-led Ministry of Morality announced on Monday its plans to gradually enforce a law that prohibits news outlets from publishing images of any living beings. Journalists were informed that the regulation would be introduced in phases.
This move follows the Taliban government’s recent announcement of laws that formalize the implementation of Shariah law across the country.
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“The law applies to all of Afghanistan, and its implementation will be phased,” Saiful Islam Khyber, spokesperson for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (PVPV), told AFP. He emphasized that the authorities would work to convince the public that displaying images of living creatures is against Islamic law.
“There will be no force used in enforcing the law,” Khyber stated. “We will focus on advising people and persuading them that these practices go against Shariah and should be avoided.”
The new regulations for the media also include a ban on publishing any content deemed disrespectful to religion or in contradiction to Shariah law. However, certain parts of the law, such as discouraging the public from taking or viewing images of living beings on phones or devices, have yet to be strictly enforced.
Taliban officials themselves continue to share photos of people on social media, and Afghan journalists have told AFP that authorities assured them they could continue their work after the announcement of the law.
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The Ministry of Information did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for clarification on the issue.
Khyber explained that efforts to enforce the law have begun in several provinces, including Kandahar, Helmand, and Takhar, but not all regions have started enforcing it yet.
In Kandahar, prior to the recent law, officials were prohibited from taking photos and videos of living beings, though media outlets were exempt from the rule. Now, according to Khyber, the regulation applies to everyone.
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On Sunday, morality officials in central Ghazni province summoned local journalists to inform them that the law would soon be gradually enforced. Visual journalists were advised to take pictures from a distance and reduce the number of events they cover “to get accustomed to the new regulations,” one journalist, who spoke anonymously for fear of retaliation, told AFP. Reporters in Maidan Wardak province received similar instructions.
Under the previous Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, images of living beings, including on television, were banned across Afghanistan. However, since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, this restriction has not yet been widely imposed. Nevertheless, certain censorship rules have been enforced sporadically, such as ordering business owners to obscure the faces of men and women on advertisements, covering the heads of mannequins with plastic bags, and blurring the eyes of fish on restaurant menus.
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When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan following two decades of insurgency against foreign-backed governments, the country had approximately 8,400 media workers. That number has since dropped to 5,100, according to media industry reports.
Of those remaining in the profession, only 560 are women, who have faced severe restrictions that the United Nations has described as “gender apartheid.” Female television presenters have been ordered to wear masks, and in Helmand province, women’s voices are now banned from being broadcast on television or radio.
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Afghanistan has also seen a dramatic decline in press freedom, dropping from 122nd to 178th place in the global press freedom index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
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