The Taliban’s ban on images and videos of “living beings” will make it more difficult to cover Afghanistan, the country’s journalists have said.
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Vice and Virtue has ordered media platforms in Maidan Wardak, Kandahar and Takhar provinces not to show images of “living things with souls”, understood to mean people and animals. On Thursday, a new province of Helmand joined the list and banned all media from showing images of living beings to ensure compliance with the Taliban’s moral laws.
Taliban officials in Helmand said filming and photography of living beings would stop immediately, but gave no further information on enforcement or exceptions.
A ministry spokesman, Saif ul Islam Khyber, confirmed to The Associated Press that Taliban-run media stopped broadcasting images of living beings in some provinces on Tuesday to comply with the new law.
The ban, part of a set of “moral laws” issued by the ministry in August, does not extend to images of top Taliban leaders.
In effect, this means that journalists can no longer take photos or videos of people and animals. Photojournalists in particular fear restrictions will harm their livelihoods.
“What is allowed?” Photos of buildings, banners and empty spaces. Landscapes and mountains are also allowed at the moment,” said an Afghan photojournalist. The Independentspeaking anonymously for fear of reprisals from the Taliban.
“It’s a worsening situation for me and other photojournalists. This ends our work of taking photos. If I don’t take photos, I don’t get paid. I get paid for the photographs I send to news agencies.
The photojournalist, who freelances for an international news agency in southern Afghanistan, fears that the ban, issued in accordance with the Taliban’s interpretation of Sharia law, is another weapon in their arsenal to harass media professionals.
Afghanistan is the only country to impose such a ban, a strange reminder of the previous Taliban regime in the late 1990s.
“Government officials harass photographers and prevent us from taking photos every time we are there. We are also not openly accepted at press briefings and press events. Local Taliban leaders also prevent us from taking photos of women even if they wear the hijab or burqa. The ban will gradually accelerate in the coming days. I can only hope that foreign nations will intervene and get us out of Afghanistan,” he said.
A photojournalist who covered Afghanistan until the Taliban took Kabul by force and overthrew Ashraf Ghani’s government in 2021 says the decree marks the beginning of the end for the outside world of atrocities and human rights violations. human rights in Afghanistan.
“Make no mistake, this is one of the last times the international community can have free access to photos and videos from Afghanistan, some highlighting serious human rights violations” , said Massoud Hossaini, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist of Afghan origin. “This will now come at the expense of the safety of media professionals. »
Mr Hossaini, who worked for the French news agency AFP, says he received death threats for doing his job, even under the previous Western-backed government.
“You take photos of women, men and anyone who doesn’t want to be in the photo, and taking photos is haram,” he said, according to local Afghan leaders.
“We warn you, if you don’t stop this, we will punish you in the Islamic way. They meant death, not just flogging or prison.
