Afghanistan: Taliban closes women-run radio station for playing music during Ramadan

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan closed down an Afghan women-run radio station in northeastern Afghanistan this week. Authorities said the radio station was closed down as it was playing music during the holy month of Ramadan.

A Taliban official said that it has ordered the closure of an Afghan women-run radio station, Sadai Banowan, for playing music during the time of Ramadan. The station is the only women-run radio station in the country that started operations 10 years ago and is predominantly made up of female staff.

The director for Information and Culture for Afghanistan’s Badakshan province, Moezmuddin Ahmadi, claimed that the station repeatedly breached the “laws and regulations of the Islamic Emirate” by playing songs and music during Ramadan.

“If this radio station accepts the policy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and gives a guarantee that it will not repeat such a thing again, we will allow it to operate again,” said Ahmadi.

The station’s head Naijia Sorosh denied any breach of laws, saying that the closure was unnecessary and a conspiracy. Sorosh said the Taliban authorities told them they were playing music.

“We have not broadcast any kind of music,” said Sorosh, who recalled that representatives from the Ministry of Information and Culture and the Vice and Virtue Directorate arrived at the station Thursday last week and shut it down. Sorosh said that the station’s staff have since contacted the Vice and Virtue Directorate, but officials said they have no additional information about the closure.

The closure comes at a time when the Taliban introduced increasingly restrictive policies on women in Afghanistan since retaking control of the country in 2021. Women have been banned from most lines of work as well as education beyond sixth grade and university. While there is no official ban on music, the Taliban’s hardline run in the 1990s banned most television, radio, and newspapers.

On Saturday, Sky News reported that three British nationals are under Taliban custody, including “danger tourist” Miles Routledge. The other two nationals include charity medic Kevin Cornwell and another British national who manages a hotel in the capital Kabul. A spokesperson for the British foreign office said they were working to obtain “consular contact” with the three nationals being detained in Afghanistan.