Kabul: The Taliban on Saturday ordered Afghan women to wear the all-covering burqa in public.
The decree, one of the harshest controls imposed on women since the Taliban seized power, was issued by the hardline Islamic group’s supreme leader, reported AFP.
“They should wear a chadori (head-to-toe burqa) as it is traditional and respectful,” stated the decree by Hibatullah Akhundzada.
A spokesman for the Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice read out the decree at a press conference in Kabul. He added that 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 home.
The ideal face covering, Taliban said, was the all-encompassing blue burqa, which became a global symbol of their previous regime from 1996 until 2001.
After assuming power last year, the Taliban said it had changed since it last ruled Afghanistan — when girls’ education was banned, women couldn’t leave the house without a male relative and women had to wear cover their faces.
But as months passed by, the Taliban administration has piled on restrictions on women – like limiting their travel without a male chaperone and banning men and women from visiting parks at the same time. Now, the all-covering burqa.
The Taliban has been facing a backlash from the international community over escalation of restrictions on women in public.
The US and other nations have cut down on development aid and enforced strict sanctions on the banking system. More sanctions from the West could be forthcoming.
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