According to a report from Al Jazeera on Monday, a women-run radio station in northeast Afghanistan has been shut down in yet another oppressive step because it broadcast music during the fasting month of Ramzan.
Since it began broadcasting ten years ago, Sadai Banowan has been the only woman-run radio station in Afghanistan. Sadai Banowan translates to “women’s voice” in Dari. In the radio station, there were six female personnel out of a total of eight. Ramadan music was played on the radio station multiple times, according to Moezuddin Ahmadi, the provincial director for communications and culture, in violation of Islamic Emirate laws and regulations. The station was closed as a result.
Ahmadi said, “If this radio station accepts the policy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and guarantees that it will not repeat such a thing again, we will allow it to operate again,”.
Najia Sorosh, the station’s manager, refuted the Taliban’s allegations that the radio station had broken laws and regulations by denying that there had been any infringement and by claiming that the closure was an elaborate plot.
The Taliban “told us that you have broadcast music. We have not broadcast any kind of music,” she said according to Al Jazeera.