New Delhi, Dec 2 (IANS): The Taliban have issued a new diktat in Badakhshan province of Afghanistan, wherein people have been urged to stop their work for attending congregational prayers, Raha Press reported.
The officials of Islamic Emirate Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Badakhshan drove a Ranger and announced through loudspeakers that all shopkeepers and car owners in Faizabad, the capital city of Badakhshan, should stop working when it is time for congregational prayers.
In accordance with the new Taliban orders, women are denied free movement across the city and are urged to wear a complete Islamic Hijab, the report said.
This new commands by the Taliban signal an early Islam era where people in Saudi Arabia left their work and shops to attend congregational prayers, the report said.
The Taliban have been said to have changed compared to their first coming to power, but the reality shows something else, the report added.
Earlier, women were banned from appearing in television dramas in Afghanistan under the new rules imposed by the Taliban government, the BBC reported.
Female journalists and presenters have also been ordered to wear headscarves on screen, although the guidelines do not say which type of covering to use.
Reporters say some of the rules are vague and subject to interpretation, the report said.
The latest set of Taliban guidelines, which have been issued to Afghan television channels, features eight new rules.
They include banning of films considered against the principles of Sharia - or Islamic - law and Afghan values, while footage of men exposing intimate parts of the body is prohibited, the report added.
Comedy and entertainment shows that insult religion or may be considered offensive to Afghans are also forbidden.
The Taliban have insisted that foreign films promoting foreign cultural values should not be broadcast, the report added.
Afghan television channels show mostly foreign dramas with lead female characters.
The Taliban's earlier decision to order girls and young women to stay home from school made Afghanistan the only country in the world to bar half of its population from getting an education.
The Mayor of Kabul also told female municipal employees to stay at home unless their jobs could not be filled by a man, the report said.