Afghanistan: Taliban tell TV channels to stop show with women actors

Afghanistan's Taliban government has issued a new ''religious guideline'' to TV channels telling them to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring women actors.

In the first such directive to Afghan media issued by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Taliban also called on women television journalists to wear Islamic hijab while presenting their reports, news agency AFP has reported.

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The ministry has also asked the channels not to air films or programmes in which the Prophet Mohammed or other revered figures are shown.

It called for banning films or programmes that were against Islamic and Afghan values.

''These are not rules but a religious guideline'," ministry spokesman Hakif Mohajir told AFP.

Despite insisting they will rule more moderately this time around, the Taliban have already introduced rules for what women can wear at university, and beaten and harassed several Afghan journalists despite promising to uphold press freedoms.