Taliban suspends Afghanistan's only radio station run by women

Kabul-based Radio Begum was educating Afghan women on health, psychology, and spiritual programmes. The Taliban has suspended Afghanistan’s women’s only radio channel after raiding it on Tuesday, its information and culture ministry said. The hardline Islamist group has accused the channel of “unauthorised provision” of content and programming to an overseas TV channel, further cracking down on the last few pockets of employed Afghan women which are already under scrutiny and pressure to operate under Taliban rule.

Radio Begum, a broadcast station based in Kabul, launched five months before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, confirmed the raid and said the Taliban’s officials from the information and culture ministry searched the premises of the office and restrained the staff. The Taliban officials “seized computers, hard drives, files and phones from Begum staff, including Begum female journalists, and took into custody two male employees of the organisation who do not hold any senior management position”, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

Radio Begum’s content is produced entirely by a team of Afghan women. While the Taliban did not mention which foreign TV channel, Radio Begum’s sister satellite channel Begum TV operates from France and broadcasts educational programmes on Afghan school curriculum from seventh to 12th grade. In Kabul, Radio Begum broadcasted at least six hours of lessons a day, including topics of health, psychology and spiritual programmes tailored for women across parts of Afghanistan before its shutdown on Tuesday.

According to the Taliban’s claims, Radio Begum was violating broadcasting policy and improperly used its license. “This decision comes after several violations, including the unauthorised provision of content and programming to a foreign-based television channel,” the Taliban’s information and broadcast ministry said without disclosing when the radio station will be allowed to function normally.

The ministry said it will review all necessary documents to determine the station’s future. Radio Begum has denied being involved in any political activity and said it was "committed to serving the Afghan people and more specifically the Afghan women". This is the second time the Taliban has shuttered an outlet by accusing them of working with a foreign media. In May last year, the Taliban warned journalists and experts in Afghanistan to end their collaboration with Afghanistan International TV, an independent broadcast service in exile reporting on the war-hit country.