Afghanistan: Taliban returns to hardline policy in ordering Afghan women to cover faces in public

The Taliban is looking to seek international recognition as the international community demands that the insurgent group ensure equal rights for Afghan men and women. However, the insurgent group returned to a hardline policy as the Taliban ordered Afghan women to keep their faces covered in public.

Reuters reports the Taliban has returned to a policy that harkens back to their hardline rule Saturday as it ordered women to cover their faces when in public. The group’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhunzada, issued a decree that if an Afghan woman did not cover her face outside the house, her father or closest male relative would be punished through either prison time or dismissal from state jobs.

“We call on the world to co-operate with the Islamic Emirate and the people of Afghanistan…Don’t bother us. Don’t bring more pressure, because history is witness, Afghans won’t be affected by pressure,” the minister for Afghanistan’s ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Mohammad Khalid Hanafi said during a news conference.

The insurgent group said that the ideal face covering was the blue burqa, referencing the garment that women were obligated to wear during the Taliban’s hardline rule from 1996 to 2001. To note, most women in Afghanistan wear a headscarf for religious reasons, but in other areas, such as the capital Kabul, most women do not cover their faces.

The UN’s Mission to Afghanistan issued a statement Saturday saying that it would seek a meeting with the Taliban over the issue, saying that it would also consult with others in the international community on the order’s implications.

Afghanistan continues to face domestic terror attacks as back in April. Bombings occurred in two passenger vans that were carrying Shi’ite Muslims in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, killing at least nine people, according to an official.

The blasts followed an explosion at the Shi’ite mosque in the city the week prior, killing 11 people as the country tackles a rise in attacks by Islamic State militants following the West’s withdrawal from the country in August last year. The group has since claimed responsibility for the attack.