A women-run radio station in Afghanistan’s north east has been shut down for playing music during the holy month of Ramadan, a Taliban official said.

Sadai Banowan, which means “women’s voice” in Dari, is Afghanistan’s only women-run station and started 10 years ago. It has eight staff, six of them female.

Moezuddin Ahmadi, the director for Information and Culture in Badakhshan province, said the station violated the “laws and regulations of the Islamic Emirate” several times by broadcasting songs and music during Ramadan and was closed because of the breach.

Afghanistan radio station
The station’s studio in Badakhshan province (AP)

“If this radio station accepts the policy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and gives a guarantee that it will not repeat such a thing again, we will allow it to operate again,” he added.

Station head Najia Sorosh denied there was any violation, saying there was no need for the closure and called it a conspiracy. The Taliban “told us that you have broadcast music. We have not broadcast any kind of music”, she said.

Ms Sorosh said representatives from the Ministry of Information and Culture and the Vice and Virtue Directorate arrived at the station on Thursday morning and shut it down.

Afghanistan radio station
The station had been on-air for 10 years (AP)

She said station staff have contacted Vice and Virtue but officials said they did not have any additional information about the closing.

Many journalists lost their jobs after the Taliban takeover in August 2021.

Media outlets closed over lack of funds or because staff left the country, according to the Afghan Independent Journalists Association.

Afghanistan radio station
Officials said the station violated the “laws and regulations of the Islamic Emirate” several times by broadcasting songs and music during Ramadan (AP)

The Taliban have barred women from most forms of employment and education beyond the sixth grade, including university.

There is no official ban on music. During their previous rule in the late 1990s, the Taliban barred most television, radio and newspapers in the country.