Afghanistan's Supreme Court Wednesday protested against the lifting of a ban on women singers on state television, saying the practice was un-Islamic and should not be repeated.
For the first time in a decade, state TV Monday night broadcast women singing as part of TV reforms being introduced under the moderate government of President Hamid Karzai.
"We are opposed to women singing. We totally oppose this decision as an Islamic country," Deputy Chief Justice Fazel Ahamad Manawi told AFP.
"The Supreme Court's high council last year banned women singing and we still insist on our decision. It should be banned."
Monday night's broadcast included a video clip of Salma, a famous singer in the 1970s and 1980s, singing a romantic ballad about being a refugee.
At least two other music clips featuring women were also shown Monday night, of which one was a religious song in Urdu.
It was the first time since the fall of the communist regime of president Najibullah in 1992 that Afghan public television has shown such images.
When TV cable operators started broadcasting in Kabul in early 2003, the Supreme Court protested and for a while cable television operators were unable to broadcast.
But they began operations again shortly afterwards, this time without official permission, and still operate without official sanction.
There are at least a dozen cable TV operators in Kabul, broadcasting mainly entertainment programmes in Indian languages and English but also some news.
Manawi said the Supreme Court had written an official letter to the ministry of Information and Culture, the key government department controlling all broadcasts and publication and seen as the main authority behind ending the ban on women singers.
When asked what the court would do if the government continued to defy its rulings, Manawi replied: "We just show our opposition. It is up to the government to implement the decisions made by the legislative and judiciary forces of the country."