Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Saturday, May 7 have ordered all Afghan women to henceforth wear burka clothing in public, IgbereTV reports
Specifically, the blue burka became a global symbol of the Taliban’s previous regime in Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, and the decision to make it mandatory again marks an escalation of growing restrictions on women in public.
The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice read a decree from the sect’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada at a press conference in Kabul.
“We want our sisters to live with dignity and safety,” said Khalid Hanafi, acting minister for the all-male ministry – which replaced the country’s women’s ministry after the militants took control in August 2021.
The decree says that if a woman does not cover her face outside the home, her father or closest male relative would be visited and eventually imprisoned or fired from government jobs.
It also states that if women have no important work to be done outside, it is better for them to stay at home.
“Islamic principles and Islamic ideology are more important to us than anything else,” Mr. Hanafi said
