The Taliban say they have arrested two people in Afghanistan for dubbing foreign television series for payment in violation of “Islamic values”, in an ongoing crackdown on the media.
The charges against Nawid Asghari and Mushtaq Ahmad related to the promotion of Western cultural values, a Taliban spokesman announced in a post on X on Saturday.
In a video, one of the detainees introduces himself as the director of a company called Pixel and says he and around 30 employees were dubbing television series for television companies in Afghanistan. The Taliban has a history of eliciting forced confessions from suspects.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed severe restrictions on media and journalistic activity across Afghanistan through the arrest and intimidation of journalists, bans on music programs and the exclusion of women from media. These restrictions have forced many media outlets to shut down or drastically reduce their operations.Earlier this month, the Taliban announced the arrest of two media workers in Kabul on charges of promoting “atheism, Christianity, and feminism.”
