Afghanistan

Afghanistan 🇦🇫 is an Asian nation that primarily worships Islam. Since August 2021, the Taliban has taken control over most of Afghanistan's territory, and it is currently under rule by the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

General censorship

• The Press Law that was implemented in 1965 gave press freedom in Afghanistan.
• However, under the Khalq communist regime, opposition was violently suppressed.
• When the United Nations Convention against Torture was signed by Afghanistan in 1987, Babrak Karmal promised to end the brutality of the Khalq.
• When most of Afghanistan was under Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, television, movies, and music were outlawed. Women had virtually no rights.
• From 2001 to 2021, Afghanistan ranked notably better than its neighbours in terms of press freedom, although it was still not ideal. Despite Article 34 of the Afghan Constitution allowing freedom of speech and press, self-censorship by journalists remained common.
• Kabul fell to the Taliban again on August 2021, causing many independent media outlets within the country to disappear.

Internet censorship

Internet itself was banned during the Taliban government (1996-2001), as it was deemed broadcasting obscene, immoral, and anti-Islamic material, and because the few Internet users at the time could not be easily monitored as they obtained their telephone lines from neighboring Pakistan. However, when Karzai took office in 2002, Internet was introduced in Afghanistan.

It is forbidden to use .af domains to make any communications for crime, racial vilification; violation of intellectual property rights and the distribution, publishing, or linking to pornographic materials that a "reasonable person as a member of the community of Afghanistan would consider to be obscene or indecent". The ban on spam or junk mail also includes unsolicited political or religious tracts along with commercial advertising and other information.

Movie censorship

From 1996 to 2001, all movies were banned by the Taliban, as the regime deemed any sort of artistic or literary depiction of anyone to be a form of idolatry. When the Taliban took again power in the country in 2021, the ban was reinstated.

• The Kite Runner - this film adaptation of the same name novel was banned in 2007 due to a rape scene, and fears that it would exacerbate tensions between the country's ethnic groups.

Television censorship

From 1996 to 2001, the Taliban banned television, as the regime deemed any sort of artistic or literary depiction of anyone to be a form of idolatry, which was far worse so than the taboo on depicting the Prophet Muhammed.

Video game censorship

During the first reign of the Islamic Emirate government in Afghanistan (1996–2001), Western technology and art was prohibited and this included all video games. Between 2001 and 2021, no video games were officially banned in Afghanistan, except for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG).

External links

• Human rights in Afghanistan at Wikipedia

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