Taliban orders TV channels to stop screening women actors

Taliban authorities have issued a new ”religious guideline” that called on television channels to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring women actors.

The directive was issued by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice on Sunday and was widely circulated on social media networks.

”These are not rules but a religious guideline’,” ministry spokesman Hakif Mohajir told AFP.

The Taliban also called on women television journalists to wear hijabs while presenting their reports.

The ministry’s directives included films or programmes in which the Prophet Muhammad or other revered figures are shown,  asking channels to refrain from airing such shows.

It called for banning films or programmes that were against religion and Afghan values.