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Taliban rulers have suspended Afghanistan’s women’s only radio channel after raiding it, the country’s information and culture ministry said.
The hardline Islamist group accused the channel of “unauthorised provision” of content and programming to an overseas TV channel, further cracking down on the last few pockets of employed Afghan women which are already under scrutiny and pressure to operate under Taliban rule.
Radio Begum, based in Kabul, launched five months before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021. It confirmed the raid and said Taliban officials from the information and culture ministry searched its premises on Tuesday and restrained staff.
Taliban officials “seized computers, hard drives, files and phones from Begum staff, including Begum female journalists, and took into custody two male employees of the organisation who do not hold any senior management position”, it said in a statement.
Radio Begum’s content is produced entirely by Afghan women. While the Taliban did not mention which foreign TV channel was involved, Radio Begum’s sister satellite channel Begum TV operates from France and broadcasts educational programmes for the Afghan school curriculum from seventh to 12th grade.
Radio Begum broadcast at least six hours of lessons a day, including topics of health, psychology and spiritual programmes tailored for women across parts of Afghanistan before its shutdown on Tuesday.
According to the Taliban, Radio Begum was violating broadcasting policy and improperly used its license.
“This decision comes after several violations, including the unauthorised provision of content and programming to a foreign-based television channel,” the Taliban’s information and broadcast ministry said without disclosing when the radio station will be allowed to function normally.
The ministry said it will review all necessary documents to determine the station’s future.
Radio Begum has denied being involved in any political activity and said it was “committed to serving the Afghan people and more specifically the Afghan women”.
It is the second time the Taliban has shuttered an outlet is accuses of working with foreign media. In May last year, the Taliban warned journalists and experts in Afghanistan to end their collaboration with Afghanistan International TV, an independent broadcast service in exile reporting on the war-hit country.
Human rights groups have called on the Taliban to revoke the radio station’s suspension. Afghanistan ranks 178 out of 180 countries, according to the 2024 press freedom index from Reporters without Borders, a further slip from 2023 when it ranked 152.