Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Saturday ordered all Afghan women to wear head-to-toe clothing in public — a sharp pivot that confirmed the worst fears of rights advocates and was bound to further complicate Taliban dealings with an already distrustful international community.
The decree says that women should leave the home only when necessary, and that male relatives would face punishment — starting with a summons and escalating up to court hearings and jail time — for women’s dress code contraventions.
It was the latest in a series of repressive edicts issued by the Taliban leadership, not all of which have been implemented.
Photo: AFP
Last month, for example, the Taliban forbade women to travel alone, but after a day of opposition, that has since been silently ignored.
Yesterday in the capital, Kabul, many women on the street were wearing the same large shawls as before. Women also arrived unaccompanied at Hamid Karzai International Airport, while in the city women boarded small buses alone.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said it was deeply concerned with what appeared to be a formal directive that would be implemented and enforced, adding that it would seek clarifications from the Taliban about the decision.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“This decision contradicts numerous assurances regarding respect for and protection of all Afghans’ human rights, including those of women and girls, that had been provided to the international community by Taliban representatives during discussions and negotiations over the past decade,” it said in a statement.
The decree, which calls for women to only show their eyes and recommends they wear the head-to-toe burqa, evoked similar restrictions on women during the Taliban’s previous rule from 1996 to 2001.
“We want our sisters to live with dignity and safety,” said Khalid Hanafi, acting minister for the Afghan Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
The Taliban previously decided against reopening schools to girls above sixth grade, reneging on an earlier promise and opting to appease their base at the expense of further alienating the international community. The decree does not have widespread support among a leadership that is divided between pragmatists and hard-liners.
That decision disrupted efforts by the Taliban to win recognition from potential international donors, as the country is mired in a worsening humanitarian crisis.
“For all dignified Afghan women wearing hijab is necessary and the best hijab is chadori [the head-to-toe burqa] which is part of our tradition and is respectful,” Afghan Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice official Shir Mohammad said in a statement.
“Those women who are not too old or young must cover their face, except the eyes,” he said. “Islamic principles and Islamic ideology are more important to us than anything else.”
Senior Afghanistan researcher Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch urged the international community to put coordinated pressure on the Taliban.
It is “far past time for a serious and strategic response to the Taliban’s escalating assault on women’s rights,” she wrote on Twitter.
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