KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan Taliban leaders on Saturday ordered all Afghan women to wear clothes from head to toe in public – a sharp, hard line that confirmed the activists’ worst fears of rights and had further complicated Taliban relations with already distrustful international community.
The decree states that women should leave home only when necessary and that male relatives will face punishment – starting with a summons and ending with court hearings and imprisonment – for violating women’s dress codes.
This was the latest in a series of repressive decrees issued by the Taliban leadership, not all of which have been carried out. Last month, for example, the Taliban banned women from traveling alone, but after a day of opposition, it has been tacitly ignored ever since.
On Sunday in the Kabul capital, many women on the streets wore the same large scarves as before. The women also arrived unaccompanied at Kabul International Airport, while in the city the women boarded small buses alone.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said it was deeply concerned about what appears to be a formal directive that will be implemented and enforced, adding that it would seek clarification from the Taliban on the decision.
“This decision runs counter to numerous guarantees regarding the respect for and protection of all human rights of Afghans, including those of women and girls, provided to the international community by Taliban representatives during discussions and negotiations over the past decade,” the statement said. .
The decree, which called for women to show only their eyes and recommended wearing a burqa from head to toe, caused similar restrictions for women during the previous Taliban rule between 1996 and 2001.
“We want our sisters to live with dignity and security,” said Khalid Hanafi, acting minister of the Taliban’s Vice Office of Vice and Virtue.
Earlier, the Taliban decided not to reopen schools for girls over 6th grade, abandoning an earlier promise and choosing to reassure its hardline base at the expense of further alienation from the international community. But this decree does not have widespread support among the leadership, which is divided between pragmatists and hardliners.
The decision undermined the Taliban’s efforts to gain recognition from potential international donors at a time when the country is mired in a deteriorating humanitarian crisis.
“For all worthy Afghan women, wearing a hijab is necessary and the best hijab is an umbrella (burqa from head to toe), which is part of our tradition and is respectful,” Shir Mohammad, a spokesman for the Ministry of Vice and Virtue, said in a statement. .
“Those women who are not too old or young should cover their face except their eyes,” he said. “Islamic principles and Islamic ideology are more important to us than anything else.”
Heather Barr, a senior Afghan researcher at Human Rights Watch, called on the international community to put coordinated pressure on the Taliban.
“(This is) a long time ago for a serious and strategic response to the escalating Taliban attack on women’s rights,” she wrote on Twitter.
The Taliban were ousted in 2001 by a US-led coalition to hide al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and returned to power in the fading days of America’s chaotic departure last year.
The White House National Security Council condemned Saturday’s Taliban decree and called on them to repeal it.
“We are discussing this with other countries and partners. “The legitimacy and support that the Taliban are seeking from the international community depends entirely on their behavior, in particular their ability to support their stated commitments to action,” the statement said.
Since taking power last August, the Taliban have been at loggerheads as they struggle to move from war to rule. He contrasts the hardliners with the more pragmatic among them.
A spokeswoman for Pangea, an Italian NGO that has been helping women in Afghanistan for years, said the new decree would be particularly difficult for them to swallow as they lived in relative freedom until the Taliban took over.
“For the last 20 years, they have been aware of human rights and have lost them within a few months,” Sylvia Redigolo said by telephone. “It’s dramatic (now) to have a life that doesn’t exist”
Many Afghans are outraged by the knowledge that many of the younger generation of Taliban, such as Sirajuddin Hakani, are training their girls in Pakistan, while in Afghanistan women and girls have been subjected to repressive decrees since taking power. Hakani has been identified by the UN as a terrorist and leader of the Hakani network, which has been blamed for some of the deadliest attacks during the 20-year US-led invasion.
After the return of the Taliban in most parts of the country, girls are banned from attending school after 6th grade. Universities opened earlier this year in much of the country, but since the Taliban took office, decrees have been erratic. While a handful of provinces continued to provide education for all, most provinces closed educational institutions for girls and women.
The Taliban’s religious administration fears progress in enrolling girls after sixth grade could alienate their rural base, Hashmi said.
In Kabul, private schools and universities operate continuously.
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Associated Press writer Rahim Fayez of Islamabad, Thomas Strong in Washington and Francis D’Emilio in Rome contributed to this report
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