According to the Associated Press, a Taliban source reported that a women-run radio station in Afghanistan had been shut down for playing music during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Sadai Banowan, which means “women’s voice,” is the name of the station managed by women. Six out of the eight employees at the radio station, which has been operating for ten years, are women.
The radio station repeatedly broke the “laws and regulations of the Islamic Emirate,” according to Moezuddin Ahmadi, the head for information and culture in the province of Badakhshan, by playing music and songs during Ramadan.
“If this radio station accepts the policy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and gives a guarantee that it will not repeat such a thing again, we will allow it to operate again,” Moezuddin Ahmadi averred.
Najia Sorosh, the head of the radio station, dismissed the allegations as a “conspiracy,” saying that there was no need for the station to be shut down. The Taliban “told us that you have broadcast music. We have not broadcast any kind of music,” she added.