In latest blow to Afghan women’s rights, Taliban make arrests over ‘bad hijab’ in dress code crackdown
- In May 2022, the Taliban issued a decree calling for women to only show their eyes and recommending they wear the head-to-toe burka
- The development is the latest blow to Afghan women and girls, who are already reeling from bans on education, employment and access to public spaces
The Taliban have arrested women in the Afghan capital for wearing “bad hijab,” a spokesman at the country’s Vice and Virtue Ministry said Thursday.
It’s the first official confirmation of a crackdown on women who don’t follow the dress code imposed by the Taliban since they returned to power in 2021 and has echoes with neighbouring Iran, which has enforced mandatory hijab for decades.
The development is the latest blow to Afghan women and girls, who are already reeling from bans on education, employment and access to public spaces.
The spokesman from the Vice and Virtue Ministry, Abdul Ghafar Farooq, didn’t say how many women have been arrested or what constitutes bad hijab.
In May 2022, the Taliban issued a decree calling for women to only show their eyes and recommending they wear the head-to-toe burka, similar to restrictions during the Taliban’s previous rule between 1996 and 2001.
Farooq said the women were arrested three days ago.
In voice notes to Associated Press, he said the ministry has heard complaints about women’s lack of correct hijab in the capital and provinces for almost two-and-a-half years.
