Women in Afghanistan are required to cover their faces when walking on the street. That is what Hibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the Taliban, ordered in a decree. “They must wear a burqa that covers them from head to toe, as is traditional and respectful,” the decree said.
#UPDATE Afghanistan's supreme leader and Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada on Saturday ordered the country's women to wear the all-covering burqa in public — one of the harshest controls imposed on women's lives since the hardline Islamists seized power https://t.co/reGEsff6qY pic.twitter.com/GbRrIUpWKw
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 7, 2022
During the first Taliban regime between 1996 and 2001, women were allowed to walk alone in a burqa. They were not allowed to work or go to school. After taking power in August last year, the Taliban said they would respect women’s rights in Afghanistan. It soon became clear that that promise was not being kept.
Taliban orders Afghan women to cover their faces in public https://t.co/jQHxbNDcta pic.twitter.com/SStXtOlmt3
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 7, 2022
In recent months, various rules have been imposed on women in Afghanistan. Girls and women are no longer allowed to go to school or travel without a male relative. It has also been decided that men and women are not allowed to visit parks in the capital Kabul on the same day. On Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays they are only open to women, and the rest of the week to men.
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