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Rabat – Afghanistan’s Supreme leader has ruled that all women must fully cover their faces in public, in one of the harshest restrictions imposed on women since the Taliban’s take over of the country last year.
“They should wear a chadori (head-to-toe burqa) as it is traditional and respectful,” a statement released by Taliban chief Haibatullah Akhunzada said on Saturday.
The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice said that if a woman does not obey the rule in public, her father or closest male relative would be visited, questioned, and eventually imprisoned or fired from government jobs.
While most women in Afghanistan wear a headscarf, those in more urban areas like Kabul are less likely to have their faces covered.
Fawzia Koofi, former Afghanistan parliament deputy speaker, criticized the new rule, saying it oppresses and represses women.
“In the middle of all this suffering for Afghan people, why is the issue of women the only one taking priority?” she told Al Jazeera.
Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021 after a botched US withdrawal from the country, and the group has steadily tightened rules and restrictions since, even as criticism mounts against their new rules.
Read also: The Taliban Take-Over: What it May Mean Going Forward
Other restrictions include limitations on women traveling without male relatives, restricting girls’ access to education, and even limiting their access to healthcare without male relatives.
