On Sunday, Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers began implementing an edict ordering all female TV news anchors to hide their faces while on screen. The move is part of a hardline change that has been criticized by human rights activists.

Only a few news organizations followed the directive when it was released on Thursday. However, once the Taliban’s vice and virtue ministry began implementing the order on Sunday, most female anchors were seen with their faces covered.

The Ministry of Information and Culture had earlier said that the policy was definite and irreversible.

A local media representative stated that his station received the order last week, but that it was obliged to carry it out on Sunday, and that it was not up for debate. He talked on the condition that he and his station stay unidentified to avoid Taliban retaliation.

During the Taliban’s final reign in Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, they placed severe restrictions on women, forcing them to wear the all-encompassing burqa and prohibiting them from participating in public life. and instruction

The Taliban ordered all women in public to wear head-to-toe clothes with only their eyes showing earlier this month. The edict said that women should only leave the house when absolutely necessary, and that male relatives would be punished for violating the dress code, beginning with a summons and progressing to court hearings and jail time.

Taliban authorities have also prohibited girls from attending school after sixth grade, contradicting prior Taliban assurances that girls of all ages would be permitted to attend school.