Taliban authorities in the northern Afghan city of Jalalabad have shut down a radio station run by women for broadcasting music during Ramadan.
‘Sadai Banwan’, which means women’s voice in Dari, is Afghanistan’s only radio station operated by women.
This radio station was started 10 years ago. The staff of this radio station is eight people, six of whom are women.
Moeezuddin Ahmadi, director of information and culture of Badakhshan province under the Taliban regime, said that the Sadaya Banwan radio station had repeatedly violated the “rules and regulations of the Islamic Emirate” by broadcasting songs and music during Ramadan. It was closed due to
Ahmadi said: ‘If this radio station follows the policy of Emirate of Islamia Afghanistan and those people guarantee that they will not do such things again, we will allow them to work again.’
Station head Najiya Sarosh denied any violation and termed the shutdown as ‘unnecessary and a conspiracy’.
According to him: ‘Taliban told us that you broadcast music but we didn’t broadcast any kind of music.’
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Sarosh said that at 11:40 a.m. on Thursday, representatives of the Ministry of Information and Culture and the Ministry of Da’wa and Irshad Amr-i-Maluf and Nahi-ul-Munkar Directorate reached the radio station and shut it down.
He said that the staff of the station had contacted the Ministry of Da’wa and Irshad Amr al-Maruf wa Nahi al-Munkar, but officials there said they did not have any additional information about the closure.
After the Taliban came to power in August 2021, many journalists lost their jobs. According to the Association of Afghan Journalists, many media outlets have closed due to lack of funds or staff leaving the country.
The Taliban has banned women from university jobs, including university education.
Officially there is no ban on music, but it is considered bad in the Taliban and society.
During their first rule in the 1990s, the Taliban banned most television, radio stations and newspapers in the country.