Taliban Orders Afghan Women To Wear All-Covering Burkas In Public

Taliban authorities have on Saturday, May 7 ordered Afghan women to cover their faces. This is according to a decree from the group’s supreme leader, an escalation of growing restrictions on women in public that is drawing a backlash from the international community and many Afghans.

The all-covering burka became the group’s signature order on women in Afghanistan during their first reign of terror between 1996 and 2001.

A spokesman for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice read the decree from the group’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada at a press conference in Kabul.

“They should wear a chadori (head-to-toe burqa) as it is traditional and respectful,” said a decree in his name released by Taliban authorities at a ceremony in Kabul.

“Those women who are not too old or young must cover their face, except the eyes, as per sharia directives, in order to avoid provocation when meeting men who are not mahram (adult close male relatives),” it said.

They added the ideal face covering was the all-encompassing blue burqa, which became a global symbol of the Taliban’s previous hardline regime from 1996 until 2001.

Akhundzada’s decree also said that if women had no important work outside it was “better they stay at home”. A woman’s father or closest male relative would be visited and eventually imprisoned or fired from government jobs if she did not cover her face outside the home.

Most women in Afghanistan wear a headscarf for religious reasons but many in urban areas such as Kabul do not cover their faces.

The group has faced intense pushback led by Western governments but joined by some religious scholars and Islamic countries for their growing limits on women’s rights.

A surprise U-turn in March in which the group shuttered girls’ high schools on the morning they were due to open drew the ire of the international community and prompted the United States to cancel planned meetings on easing the country’s financial crisis.

Washington and other nations have cut development aid and enforced strict sanctions on the banking system, since the Taliban took over in August, pushing the country towards economic ruin.

The Taliban has said it has changed since it last ruled when it banned girls’ education or women from leaving the house without a male relative and women were required to wear cover their faces.

However, in recent months the administration has increased its restrictions on women including rules limiting their travel without a male chaperone and banning men and women from visiting parks at the same time.