The Taliban is imposing a new rule prohibiting the depiction of "living beings" in Afghan media.

Reports indicate that the Taliban is strictly prohibiting certain media outlets from broadcasting "images of living beings" in Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, an Afghan official informed the Associated Press that the militant group has been enforcing a rule in certain provinces through its Vice and Virtue Ministry, but it is uncertain when or if it will be applied to all media outlets across the country, including foreign media.

The new rule prohibiting women's voices and bare faces was announced by the Vice and Virtue Ministry in August, marking the first declaration of such rules in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over after the U.S. withdrawal.

The supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada approved legislation that prohibits the publication of images showing living beings.

The media in the Afghan provinces of Maidan Wardak, Kandahar, and Takhar have been advised not to display images of anything that has a soul, according to Vice and Virtue Ministry spokesman Saif ul Islam Khyber.

The ministry instructed the state media not to broadcast such images, which was later extended to all media outlets in the provinces, as reported by the director of the Aghan Independent Journalists Union, Hujjatullah Mujadidi.

Independent local media in certain provinces have ceased to showcase these videos and images and are now airing nature videos, according to Mujadidi.

The only Muslim-majority country implementing this broadcasting rule is Afghanistan, and the strict laws announced by the Vice and Virtue Ministry, particularly those affecting women, have raised international concern.

The Vice and Virtue Ministry deemed that women's voices were too "intimate" and banned women from singing or reading aloud in public. Additionally, the legislation requires women to wear veils in public.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.