Date: 27/10/2025

Reliable sources in Badghis Province report that the Taliban have banned the broadcasting of women’s voices on local radio stations. Sources told Hasht-e Subh on Thursday, January 16, that the Department of Information and Culture in Badghis announced the decision during a meeting with journalists and media officials.

According to the sources, the department stated that under the Taliban’s new Promotion of Virtue regulations, a woman’s voice is considered impermissible and must no longer be broadcast on radio. No official public statement has yet been issued by Taliban authorities in Badghis.

This ban follows similar measures in other provinces. Three days earlier, the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Herat Province prohibited female announcers from reading news, citing women’s voices as “provocative.” The Taliban also banned the broadcast of women’s voices on radio in Khost Province last year.

The ban on broadcasting women’s voices on radio in Badghis constitutes gender-based censorship that removes women entirely from auditory public space. By redefining women’s voices as impermissible under virtue regulations, the Taliban convert media policy into moral enforcement and extend silencing beyond visual presence to sound itself. The repetition of this measure across multiple provinces demonstrates a coordinated strategy to erase women from information production and public discourse nationwide.