Afghan women protest Taliban decree to cover faces

About a dozen women protested in the Afghan capital on Tuesday against the Taliban’s new edict that females must fully cover their faces and bodies when in public.

Afghanistan’s supreme leader and Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a mandate over the weekend ordering women to cover up fully, ideally with the traditional allcovering burqa. The diktat was the latest in a series of restrictions in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have rolled back the marginal gains made by women after a US-led invasion toppled the first Taliban regime in 2001.

“Justice, justice!” chanted the protestors, many with uncovered faces, in central Kabul.

The demonstrators also chanted “Burqa is not our hijab!” indicating their objection to trading the less restrictive hijab headscarf for the totally concealing burqa. After a short procession, the march was halted by Taliban fighters, who also obstructed journalists from reporting on the event.

Akhundzada’s decree, which also orders women to “stay at home” if they have no important work outside, has triggered international condemnation. “We want to live as human beings, not as some animal held captive in a corner of a house,” protester Saira Sama Alimyar said at the rally.

Akhundzada also ordered authorities to fire female government employees who do not follow the new dress code, and to suspend male workers if their wives and daughters fail to comply. In the 20 years between the Taliban’s two stints in power, women made some gains in education, the workplace and public life but deeply conservative and patriarchal attitudes still prevailed.