Taliban orders Afghan women to wear niqab in public

In a decree issued at a ceremony in Kabul, the supreme leader of the Taliban and Afghanistan, Hebatullah Akhundzadeh, ordered women to completely cover their bodies and faces in public, saying that the burqa, a network of full blue headscarves at eye level, was the best option for this.

Women should wear Shadri [autre nom de la burqa]Because it is traditional and respectableindicates this decree.

A woman who is neither young nor old should cover her face except her eyes in accordance with the recommendations of the Shariah, in order to avoid any provocation when meeting a man. who are not close family members, he adds.

And if they don’t have a reason to go out, it is It is better for them to stay at home.

This decree also lists the penalties for heads of families who do not require the full veil. The first offenders will be punished with a simple warning. On the third day, they will be sentenced to three days’ imprisonment, and on the fourth day they will be brought to justice.

In addition, any government employee who does not wear a full veil will be fired immediately.

Islam never recommended Shadrireplied to AFP, a women’s rights activist who remained in Afghanistan, on the condition of anonymity.

The Taliban, rather than being progressive, is holding back. They act like their first diet, as they were 20 years agoshe added.

Actions denounced by the West

Canada has deplored these new restrictions, Seriously concerned about the escalating restrictions imposed by the Taliban on Afghan women. The progress made over the past decades on the human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan must be preservedThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs added on Twitter.

” The rights of women and girls in Afghanistan must be upheld and we will continue to judge the Taliban by their actions, not their words. »

The United States also said Seriously concerned about the undermining of the rights of Afghan women and girls and the progress made in this area over the past twenty yearsAccording to a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The United Nations also condemned this decision. she Contrasted with many assertions regarding the protection of human rights for all Afghans presented to the international community by Taliban representatives in recent years, insists in a press release of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

flash back

Since the return of the Taliban to power in August 2021, the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has issued several recommendations on the way women should dress, but this is the first decree issued at the national level on the subject.

The Taliban have so far required women to wear at least a headscarf, a scarf that covers the head, but reveals the face. However, they strongly recommended the wearing of the burqa, which they made compulsory when they first came to power between 1996 and 2001.

Under their first regime, they denied women nearly all rights, according to their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Undersecretaries of the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice lashed any woman who was caught without a burqa.

fake promises

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

Soon they reneged on their promises.

Afghan women are now largely excluded from government jobs and are prohibited from traveling abroad or long distances within the country without a male family member accompanying them.

In March, two students closed girls’ high schools and colleges just hours after their long-announced reopening. This unexpected position, which had no justification other than the statement that girls’ education should be carried out in accordance with the provisions of Islamic law, caused a scandal in the international community.

The Taliban also enforced segregation of women and men in Kabul’s public parks, with visiting days reserved for both genders.

Saturday’s decree may further complicate the Taliban’s quest for international recognition, which the international community has linked directly to respect for women’s rights.

” It is an unexpected setback that will not help the Taliban gain international recognition. Such moves will only escalate opposition to it. »

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

Women first tried to assert their rights by demonstrating in Kabul and in major cities after the Taliban returned to power.

But they brutally suppressed the movement, arresting many activists and detaining some of them, sometimes for several weeks.

The burqa is a traditional Afghani piece of clothing, widely worn in remote and conservative areas of the country. Even before the Taliban’s return to power, the vast majority of Afghan women were veiled, if only with a loose headscarf.