WOMEN ORDERED TO COVER UP FULL BODY
Call for international pressure grows after repressive Taliban decree for public clothing confirms worst fears of human rights activists
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have ordered all Afghan women to wear head-to-toe clothing in public – a sharp, hardline pivot that confirmed the worst fears of rights activists and is bound to further complicate Taliban dealings with an already distrustful international community.
The decree says that women should leave the home only when necessary, and that male relatives would face punishment – starting with a summons and escalating up to court hearings and prison time – for women’s dress code violations.
It was the latest in a series of repressive edicts issued by the Taliban leadership, not all of which have been implemented.
Last month, for example, the Taliban forbade women to travel alone, but after a day of opposition, that has since been silently ignored.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said it was deeply concerned about what appeared to be a formal directive that would be implemented and enforced, adding that it would seek clarifications from the Taliban about the decision.
“This decision contradicts numerous assurances regarding respect for and protection of all Afghans’ human rights, including those of women and girls, that had been provided to the international community by Taliban representatives during discussions and negotiations over the past decade,” it said in a statement.
The decree, which calls for women to only show their eyes and recommends they wear the head-to-toe burka, evoked similar restrictions imposed on women during the Taliban’s previous rule between 1996 and 2001.
“We want our sisters to live with dignity and safety,” said Khalid Hanafi, acting minister for the Taliban’s vice and virtue ministry.
The Taliban previously decided against reopening schools to girls above Grade Six, reneging on an earlier promise and opting to appease their hard-line base at the expense of further alienating the international community.
But this decree does not have widespread support among a leadership that is divided between pragmatists and the hardliners.
That decision disrupted efforts by the Taliban to win recognition from potential international donors at a time when the country was mired in a worsening humanitarian crisis.
“For all dignified Afghan women wearing hijab is necessary and the best hijab is chadori [the head-to-toe burka] which is part of our tradition and is respectful,” said Shir Mohammad, an official from the vice and virtue ministry.
“Those women who are not too old or young must cover their face, except the eyes,” he said. “Islamic principles and Islamic ideology are more important to us than anything else,” Hanafi said.
Senior Afghanistan researcher Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch urged the international community to put coordinated pressure on the Taliban.
“It is far past time for a serious and strategic response to the Taliban’s escalating assault on women’s rights,” she wrote on Twitter.
The Taliban were ousted in 2001 by a United States-led coalition for harbouring al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The group returned to power after America’s chaotic departure from the country last year. The White House did not have a comment on the Taliban’s latest decree.
Since taking power last August, the Taliban leadership have been squabbling among themselves as they struggle to transition from waging war to governing. They have pitted hardliners against the more pragmatic among them.
Infuriating many Afghans is the knowledge that many of the Taliban of the younger generation, such as Sirajuddin Haqqani, are educating their daughters in Pakistan, while in Afghanistan women and girls have been targeted by their repressive edicts.