Saad Mohseni, owner of the MOBY Group media network, sparked widespread criticism with his remarks about the \u2018normal\u2019 situation of Afghanistan and women, coinciding with reports of dozens of women detained in Herat by the Taliban authorities. On Saturday (June 6), speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival in London, Mohseni claimed that conditions in Afghanistan are normal and women can move freely in the city without covering their faces and can even drive.<\/p>\n
In contrast, according to reports from several media outlets citing eyewitnesses, Taliban forces have arrested more than 40 women in Herat for not covering their faces. Among those detained was a female doctor reportedly taken from a hospital to prison for not wearing the burqa. Critics argue these events directly contradict the picture Mohseni painted of the status of women.<\/p>\n
Mohseni also claimed in his remarks that his mother travels to Kabul and has personally seen girls attending school, describing the situation as \u2018normal.\u2019 He added that journalism in Afghanistan is not as difficult as in Gaza, and even White House journalists face humiliation. These statements come amid years of severe restrictions on media, especially female journalists, with several media employees arrested or dismissed, raising serious concerns about freedom of expression in the country.<\/p>\n
Hamira Qadri, a writer and university professor who participated in the panel event, questioned why Mohseni was not seriously challenged for statements she believes are inconsistent with on-the-ground realities. She emphasized that as a media businessman, Mohseni is aware of the problems facing women but was not critically confronted during the session.<\/p>\n
Maryam Sama, a former member of the Afghan parliament, called Mohseni a \u2018lobbyist\u2019 for the Taliban administration and said he has never supported freedom of expression or women\u2019s rights. Leyla Mohammadi, a civil activist, also accused TOLO TV of straying from its original mission and becoming a tool for \u2018normalizing fundamentalism.\u2019<\/p>\n
The protesting movement \u2018Afghan Women\u2019s Political Participation Network\u2019 described Mohseni\u2019s remarks as \u2018whitewashing\u2019 the situation in favor of the Taliban regime. It stressed that in a context where even women\u2019s voices in public spaces are restricted under new regulations, portraying a narrative of \u2018freedom of movement\u2019 ignores the harsh realities faced by Afghan women.<\/p>\n
Parwana Ibrahimkhil, a member of a women\u2019s protest movement, highlighted the contradiction between the claim of freedom of dress in the city and strict dress restrictions on TOLO TV. She questioned why women face tougher restrictions under Mohseni\u2019s media management if they can appear uncovered in public.<\/p>\n
Khalid Qadri, a photographer from Herat, noting the arrest of a pregnant woman for \u2018improper hijab,\u2019 dismissed Mohseni\u2019s remarks as disconnected from current realities. Mujib Mehrdad, a journalist, called for a stronger societal response to such statements, emphasizing that silence in the face of media and women\u2019s repression is unacceptable.<\/p>\n
Sima Noori, a diaspora community activist in Europe, described Mohseni\u2019s comments as participation in censoring women\u2019s voices and said whitewashing the Taliban on international platforms means ignoring Afghan women\u2019s voices. Bismillah Taban, a former official in the previous Afghan government, labeled Mohseni\u2019s statements as \u2018contrary to objective reality\u2019 and claimed it is not the first time Mohseni has positively portrayed Taliban actions.<\/p>\n
So far, Saad Mohseni has not responded to the wave of criticism and accusations of whitewashing and lobbying for the Taliban. He previously emphasized engagement between the international community and the Taliban government\u2014a position consistently criticized by some women\u2019s rights activists and freedom of expression advocates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saad Mohseni’s remarks calling Afghanistan and women’s situation ‘normal’ ignite backlash amid reports of Taliban detaining women in Herat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}