Back to the dark ages? Taliban orders Afghan women to wear all-covering burqa in public

In one of the harshest restrictions imposed on women’s lives since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan last year, the  supreme leader and Taliban chief on Saturday ordered the country’s women to wear the all-covering burqa in public. 

“They should wear a chadori (head-to-toe burqa) as it is traditional and respectful,” said a decree issued by Hibatullah Akhundzada that was released by Taliban authorities at a function 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),” the decree said, reported Al Arabiya.  The decree said 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 the home.

The “ideal face covering” was the all-encompassing blue burqa, which became a global symbol of the Taliban’s opression from 1996 until 2001.

Also Read: Learning, driving: Taliban strips away rights of Afghan women one at a time

The decree also ruled that if women had no important work outside it was “better they stay at home.”

The Taliban has already imposed a slew of restrictions on women in the country.  Women in the country are banned from many government jobs, secondary education, and from travelling alone outside their cities or Afghanistan.
Also read: Taliban government stops issuing driving licence to women in Afghanistan: Reports

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