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

A lady sits with women carrying burqas outdoors a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan October 5, 2021. (File photograph: Reuters)

Printed: 07 May ,2022: 11:58 AM GST Up to date: 07 Might ,2022: 12:53 PM GST

Afghanistan’s supreme leader and Taliban chief on Saturday ordered the country’s women to put on the all-covering burqa in public - one of many harshest controls imposed on ladies’s lives since 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 launched by Taliban authorities at a perform in Kabul.

“These ladies who aren't too old or young must cover their face, except the eyes, as per sharia directives, to be able to keep away from provocation when assembly men who will not be mahram (grownup close male family members),” the decree said.

It added that if ladies had no essential work outdoors it was “better they stay at home.”

During their first regime between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban imposed comparable restrictions on girls.