AfghanistanTaliban close women's radio station in Kabul
SDA
5.2.2025 - 14:55
ARCHIVE - Women in Afghanistan. Photo: Oliver Weiken/dpa
Keystone
The Islamist Taliban ruling Afghanistan have banned a radio station for women in the capital Kabul from operating.
Keystone-SDA
05.02.2025, 14:55
05.02.2025, 14:56
SDA
As the Paris-based sister station of Radio Begum told the German Press Agency, two male employees of the radio station were arrested. The Taliban also searched the radio station.
The organization Reporters Without Borders called on the Islamists to allow the station to operate again and referred to several cases in the country in which journalists were arrested and media companies permanently closed. The Afghan Journalists Association Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) pointed out the importance of the station for women's rights in Afghanistan and criticized the Taliban's actions.
Radio Begum was founded in 2021 on International Women's Day on March 8, five months before the Taliban took power again. The station also broadcasts educational programs from sixth to twelfth grade. Under the rulers in Kabul, women are forbidden from attending secondary school, so many former female students switch to online lessons or educational programs on the radio.
Several women's radio stations in Afghanistan
The Taliban accuse the station of supplying content to a foreign-based television station and thus violating broadcasting regulations, according to a statement from the Ministry of Culture. The women's radio station must now undergo a license review before a decision can be made on its future.
There are currently still several radio stations run by and for women in Afghanistan. In 2023, the temporary closure of a women's radio station in Badakhshan province in the north-east of the country made headlines after it broadcast songs during the fasting month of Ramadan, according to the Taliban.