Kabul – After telling women to dress in head-to-toe clothing, Afghanistan’s ruling government, Taliban, now orders all female presenters on TV channels to cover their faces when ‘on air’.

The order came in a statement from the Taliban’s Virtue and Vice Ministry, tasked with enforcing the group’s rulings, as well as from the Information and Culture Ministry, the TOLOnews channel, the country’s biggest media outlet said on Twitter. The statement called the order “final and non-negotiable,” the channel said.

Afghan female anchors and presenters protested on social media, posting photos with their faces covered with face masks during presenting programs. One well known TOLO presenter, Yalda Ali, posted a video of herself putting on a face mask with a caption: “a woman being erased, on orders from the Virtue and Vice Ministry.”

Zahra Rahimi, ex-Journalist from Tolo News, posted on twitter, “Taliban ordered female presenters to cover their faces while appearing on TVs.”

After they seized power again in Afghanistan in August, the Taliban initially appeared to moderate their restrictions, announcing no dress code for women. But in recent weeks, they have taken a sharp, hard-line pivot.

Earlier this month, the Taliban ordered all women in public to wear head-to-toe clothing that leaves only their eyes visible. Women are to leave their home only when necessary and that male relatives would face punishment for women’s dress code violations, starting with a summons and escalating to court hearings and jail time.

The Taliban leaders also issued a decree barring girls from attending school after the sixth grade.