Taliban leader orders women to wear all-covering burqa in public: Decree

A girl sits with women wearing burqas exterior a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan October 5, 2021. (File photograph: Reuters)

Printed: 07 Could ,2022: 11:58 AM GST Updated: 07 Might ,2022: 12:53 PM GST

Afghanistan’s supreme leader and Taliban chief on Saturday ordered the country’s girls to wear the all-covering burqa in public - one of the harshest controls imposed on ladies’s lives because the Taliban seized energy.

“They need to wear a chadori (head-to-toe burqa) as it is conventional and respectful,” said a decree issued by Hibatullah Akhundzada that was released by Taliban authorities at a function in Kabul.

“These girls who are usually not too previous or younger should cover their face, except the eyes, as per sharia directives, in order to avoid provocation when meeting men who usually are not mahram (grownup close male family members),” the decree said.

It added that if girls had no essential work outdoors it was “better they keep at dwelling.”

Throughout their first regime between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban imposed comparable restrictions on women.