THE Taliban have shut down a women-run radio station in Afghanistan for playing music during the holy month of Ramadan, an official said on Saturday.

Sadai Banowan, (Women’s Voice), is Afghanistan’s only women-run station and started 10 years ago in the northeastern province of Badakhshan.  

Information and Culture provincial director Moezuddin Ahmadi said the station had violated the “laws and regulations of the Islamic Emirate” several times by broadcasting songs and music during Ramadan and was closed because of the breach.

Mr Ahmadi said: “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.”

Station head Najia Sorosh denied there was any violation, saying there was no need for the closure and called it a conspiracy. The Taliban “told us that you have broadcast music. We have not broadcast any kind of music,” she said.

Ms Sorosh said representatives from the Ministry of Information and Culture and the Vice and Virtue Directorate arrived at the station on Thursday and shut it down. 

She said station staff have contacted Vice and Virtue, but officials there said they do not have any additional information about the closure.

Many journalists lost their jobs after the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Media outlets closed over lack of funds or because staff left the country, according to the Afghan Independent Journalists Association.

The Taliban have barred women from most forms of employment and education beyond the sixth grade, including university. 

Even though there was never an official ban on music during the previous rule of the Taliban in the late 1990s, most television, radio and newspapers in the country were barred.