Afghanistan: supreme leader ordered women to wear burqa in public

In an order released to the press in Kabul, the supreme leader of the Taliban and Afghanistan, Hibatullah Akhundzada, ordered that women wear a tchadri (another name for the burqa), because it is traditional and polite.

Women who are neither too young nor too old should cover their faces when confronted by a man who is not a member of their family.to avoid provocation, this order was added.

And if they don’t have important outside work, it is they better stay home.

This ordinance also lists the penalties by which family heads are exposed for not enforcing the wearing of the burqa.

Since the Taliban returned to power in mid -August, the dreaded Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has released some recommendations on how women should dress. But this is the first mandate on the subject expressed at the national level.

So far the Taliban has demanded that women wear at least one hijab, a scarf that covers the head, but exposes the face. But they strongly recommend wearing the burqa, which they had already imposed on their first tenure between 1996 and 2001.

In this first regime, they deprived women of almost all rights, in accordance with their very strict interpretation of Sharia, Islamic law.

Agents from the Ministry for the Promotion of Welfare and Vice Prevention beat anyone caught without a burqa.

Back in 20 years

After their return to power, after 20 years of occupation by the United States and its allies that ousted them in 2001, the Taliban promised to be more flexible this time around.

But they soon abandoned their promises, continued to reduce rights and swept away 20 years of women’s freedom.

Women are now increasingly banned from government jobs and prohibited from traveling abroad or far within the country unless accompanied by a male family member.

In March, the Taliban made high schools and colleges close to women, just hours after their long -announced reopening. This unexpected volte-face, which was not justified other than saying that the education of girls should be done in accordance with Sharia law, has caused scandal in the international community.

The Taliban also imposed segregation of women and men in public parks in Kabul, with visitation days imposed for each gender.

Over the past two decades, Afghan women have gained new freedoms, returning to school or applying for jobs in all sectors of activity, even as the country has remained socially conservative.

The women first tried to assert their rights by showing up in Kabul and major cities after the Taliban’s return to power.

But they severely suppressed the movement, arresting many activists and detaining some, sometimes for weeks.

The burqa is a traditional Afghan dress, widely worn in more distant and conservative parts of the country. Even before the Taliban returned to power, most Afghan women were veiled, if only with a loose headscarf.