Taliban orders female TV presenters to cover faces while appearing on air

• Women ordered to cover their faces with veil or face punishment.
• Netizens criticise the new rule.
• Many people call it a "step to promote extremism".

Following the ban on women from travelling alone without male relatives and a ban on girls' education, the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan have ordered all the female TV presenters to cover their faces while appearing on air.

The order to cover faces on-air came after women were ordered to wear a face veil or face punishment, theBBC reported.

After the new order by the Taliban, netizens on Twitter started criticising it and many people called it a "step by the Taliban to promote extremism."

One of the activists tweeted:"The world deploys masks to protect people from COVID. The Taliban deploys masks to protect people from seeing the faces of women journalists. For the Taliban, women are a disease."

One of the TV hosts said that women were required to appear on TV like this.

The Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue announced that it will be mandatory for all women in the country to cover their faces in public, including those who appear on the screen.