In an effort to control the public space and change it in their own image, the Taliban has issued a series of new rulings. The regime’s Ministry of Information and Culture has ordered the media in Afghanistan to refrain from using what it calls “foreign terms.”
In a statement on Thursday, January 18, The Afghanistan Journalist Center (AFJC) stated that it had obtained a copy of the Taliban’s letter to the media. In the letter, Khairullah Khairkhah, the Taliban’s minister of information and culture, said that he “hopes that all the country’s media in their programs, interviews, news, comments, and writings Avoid the terms, words, and expressions of other languages and consider the principles, rules, and grammar of their national and official languages so that the languages of the country remain immune from the interference, influence, and influence of foreign languages.”
The letter, however, does not specify which terms and words are foreign. Nor does it introduce measures of judgment or an authority to do so.
The Taliban recently announced that they have drafted a new media and information law and have presented it for approval to its supreme leader, the Kandahar-based Hibatullah Akhundzada.
For the past two years, the group relied on the regulations from the previous republic government, although it practiced it as it saw fit in its own ideology and interests. For example, the law provided for a commission to review violations, which acted as a semi-independent dispute resolution mechanism before any case was formalized in the judicial system. The Taliban kept the commission with new members but dictated its decisions according to its own official policy.
According to AFJC, Language has always been a controversial and highly politicized issue in Afghanistan. The country’s former constitution and legal system recognized a series of terms as “national terminologies” and obligated government institutions to use them across all national and local languages. Critics argued that it was a move to cement the primacy of one language, Pashto which the Taliban also speak, over others, especially Farsi. In many instances, the use of Farsi words in the media was criticized by hardliners as bringing Iranian influence to the language, arguing that Iranian Farsi was a different language than the one spoken in Afghanistan.
AFJC says that the Taliban Ministry of Information and Culture and the regime’s General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) have recently summoned and pressured several media officials regarding their use of the national language.
Although the Taliban has allowed some media organizations to operate inside the country, the group has gone to lengths to dictate the content of their programs, including what news to cover. The Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture has imposed severe restrictions and censorship, prohibiting the broadcast of entertainment programs and closely scrutinizing reporting on sensitive topics such as opium production, military operations, and protests. Journalists who dare to challenge these restrictions risk arrest, detention, and torture.
Women journalists have faced further restrictions. The Taliban banned nearly all women from the workforce, leading to a financial crisis for families in which women were the primary breadwinners. In December 2021, the International Federation of Journalists reported that 95% of female journalists have lost their jobs due to the Taliban restrictions.
The Taliban has also asked all media organizations to air the Islamic call to prayer five times a day according to Sunni Hanafi jurisprudence. While some radio and TV channels, including the state-owned RTA, did that during the previous government, it was not obligatory. The group’s move is seen as another move to reshape society according to their ultra-conservative ideology.
