The Taliban are once again requiring Afghan women to fully cover their faces in public. A spokesman for Hibatullah Akhundzada, the top Taliban boss, announced this during a press conference on Saturday, according to Reuters news agency. The decree represents one of the most far-reaching curtailments of women’s rights in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.
Women who do not follow the rule run the risk of having their father or closest male relative be fired or jailed. The decree also prescribes that it is better for women who do not have to go out for important work to stay at home completely. If they do go outside, Akhundzada says the Afghan blue burqa is the “ideal form” of face coverings because it is “traditional and respectful.”
This burqa became a symbol of the extremist group’s restrictive policies during the previous Taliban rule – between 1996 and 2001. In the capital, Kabul, in particular, many women have stopped wearing face-coverings since 2001, when the United States and its international partners invaded the country.
After the Taliban took power last August, many at home and abroad feared that women’s rights would again be severely curtailed. The extremist group initially promised to keep most of the women’s rights acquired during its 20-year absence, but in recent months it has increasingly become apparent that this was an empty promise. For example, the Taliban restricted the right of women to mahram (male chaperone) to travel heavily, and they have closed most girls’ schools.
Also read this article in which twenty Afghan women talk about their fears shortly after the return of the Taliban: “Don’t value the Taliban’s promises!”
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