The Taliban suspend Afghan women’s radio station for providing content to overseas TV channel

The Taliban’s information and culture ministry said Tuesday it suspended an Afghan women’s radio station, citing “unauthorized provision” of content and programming to an overseas TV channel.

It’s the second time authorities have shuttered an outlet for allegedly working with foreign media.

The ministry said Radio Begum violated broadcasting policy and improperly used its license. “This decision comes after several violations, including the unauthorized provision of content and programming to a foreign-based television channel,” the ministry said, adding it will review all necessary documents to determine the station’s future.

Radio Begum launched on International Women’s Day in March 2021, five months before the Taliban seized power amid the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops.

The station’s content is produced entirely by Afghan women. Its sister satellite channel, Begum TV, operates from France and broadcasts educational programs that cover the Afghan school curriculum from seventh to 12th grade.

Rights groups, including Reporters without Borders, condemned Tuesday’s suspension and demanded it be reversed.

Since their takeover, the Taliban have excluded women from education, many kinds of work, and public spaces. Journalists, especially women, have lost their jobs as the Taliban tighten their grip on the media landscape.

In the 2024 press freedom index from Reporters without Borders, Afghanistan ranks 178 out of 180 countries. The year before that it ranked 152.

The information ministry did not identify the foreign TV channel it said Radio Begum was working with.

Last May, the Taliban warned journalists and experts in Afghanistan to cease their collaboration with Afghanistan International TV.

It was the first time they had told people not to cooperate with a specific outlet.