LAST UPDATE | 7 May 2022

THE TALIBAN HAS imposed one of the harshest restrictions on Afghanistan’s women since seizing power, ordering them to wear the all-covering burqa in public.

The militants took back control of the country in August last year, promising a softer rule than their last stint in power between 1996 and 2001, which was dominated by human rights abuses.

But they have already imposed a slew of restrictions on women – banning them from many government jobs, secondary education, and from travelling alone outside their cities or Afghanistan.

The reintroduction of the ban comes amid a wide military offensive launched by an insurgent group led by the son of a legendary late anti-Taliban commander, which has claimed today to have seized three northern districts from the hardline Islamists.

The National Resistance Front (NRF), led by Ahmad Massoud, said the action in the Panjshir Valley was its first armed offensive against Taliban forces since they stormed back to power. 

Strict dress code

Today, Afghanistan’s supreme leader and Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada announced a strict dress code for women when they are in public.

“They should wear a chadori (head-to-toe burqa) as it is traditional and respectful,” said a decree in his name released by Taliban authorities at a ceremony in Kabul.

“Those women who are not too old or young must cover their face, except the eyes, as per sharia directives, in order to avoid provocation when meeting men who are not mahram (adult close male relatives),” it said.

The order was expected to spark a flurry of condemnation abroad. Many in the international community want humanitarian aid for Afghanistan and recognition of the Taliban government to be linked to the restoration of women’s rights.

Akhundzada’s decree also said that if women had no important work outside it was “better they stay at home”.

During their first regime, the Taliban had made the burqa compulsory for women.

Since their return to power, their feared Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has issued several “guidelines” on what women should wear but Saturday’s edict was the first such national order.

The hardline Islamists triggered an international outrage in March when they ordered secondary schools for girls to shut, just hours after reopening for the first time since they seized power.

Officials have never justified the ban, apart from saying the education of girls must be according to “Islamic principles”.

That ban was also issued by Akhundzada, according to several Taliban officials.

Women have also been ordered to visit parks in the capital on separate days from men.

Some Afghan women initially pushed back strongly, holding small demonstrations and protests where they demanded the right to education and work.

But the Taliban cracked down on these unsanctioned rallies and rounded up several of the ringleaders, holding them incommunicado while denying they had been detained.

In the 20 years between the Taliban’s two reigns, girls were allowed to go to school and women were able to seek employment in all sectors, though the country remained socially conservative.

In a deeply conservative and patriarchal Afghanistan, many women already wear the burqa in rural areas.

Insurgency 

NRF forces were the last to hold out against the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August last year, retreating to the valley which fell in September, weeks after US-backed government troops capitulated.

“Since last night when Ahmad Massoud… ordered his forces to launch their offensive, three major districts were liberated in Panjshir,” Ali Nazary, head of the NRF’s foreign relations, told AFP.

The NRF took the main road, outposts and villages in these districts and then besieged the Taliban in the district offices, he said.

“Many Taliban fighters have asked for time to surrender. The enemy has suffered heavy casualties.”

Nazary said the NRF offensive would continue across 12 provinces where its forces had a presence, mostly in the north.

The Taliban government rejected the NRF claims, saying there had been no “military incidents” in Panjshir or any other part of the country.

“The allegations made by some insurgents in the media are untrue,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter.

Residents of Panjshir told AFP there was heavy fighting during the night.

“People are leaving the areas because of the fighting,” said one, who asked not to be named.

Another said NRF fighters set a Taliban vehicle alight.

A local Taliban commander confirmed there was fighting with NRF fighters.

“But we have not been surrounded or ambushed,” Dad Mohammad Batar told AFP.

The Panjshir Valley is famed for being the site of resistance to Soviet forces in the 1980s, as well to the Taliban in the late 1990s during their first stint in power.

Its most revered figure is Ahmad Shah Massoud, known as the “Lion of Panjshir”, who was assassinated in 2001 by Al-Qaeda, two days before the 9/11 attacks.

His son has since picked up the mantle, and media reports say he has been organising a resistance with other exiled Afghan leaders.

The NRF has repeatedly denounced the Taliban — calling it an “illegitimate government”.