Taliban again order Afghan women to cover faces in public

KABUL – The Taliban government in Afghanistan has ordered women to cover their faces in public.

This order on Saturday is being seen as a return to the signature policy of the Taliban's past hardline rule and an escalation of restrictions that are causing anger at home and abroad.

A decree from the group's supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, said that if a woman would not cover her face outside home, her father or closest male relative would be visited and face potential prison or firing from state jobs.

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

The ideal face covering was the all-encompassing blue burqa, which was obligatory for women in public during the Taliban's previous 1996-2001 rule, the group said.

Most women in Afghanistan wear a headscarf for religious reasons but many in urban areas such as Kabul do not cover their faces.

The Taliban has faced intense criticism from Western governments, but also by some religious scholars and Islamic nations, for limiting women's rights including keeping girls' high schools closed.

The United States and others have cut development aid and sanctioned the banking system, pushing Afghanistan towards economic ruin.

The Taliban says it has changed since its last rule, but in recent months has added regulations limiting women's movement without a male chaperone and banning men and women from visiting parks together.

"It is interfering with women's private lives," Kabul-based women's rights advocate Mahbouba Seraj said of Saturday's decree.

"Today we have lots of other problems, like suicide attacks, poverty ... People are dying every day, our girls can’t go to school, women can’t work ... But they just think and speak and make laws about hijab (women's Islamic dress)."