Taliban leader Hibatullah Achundsada has made it compulsory for women in Afghanistan to wear a burqa in public.
They should wear the full body covering "as it is traditional and respectful," Achundsada said in an edict on Saturday.
It is the strictest restriction on the lives of Afghan women since the Taliban took power again.
At the time, the Taliban had promised a moderate government.
In recent months, however, numerous women's freedoms have been curtailed.
The secondary schools for girls were initially opened in March and closed again after a few hours.
Tens of thousands of women who worked for the government lost their jobs.
Women are only allowed to leave the country if they are accompanied by a male relative.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had already criticized in January that the Taliban were increasingly trying to push women out of public life.
Taliban leaders have institutionalized "large-scale and systematic" discrimination and violence against women and girls, a group of human rights experts said in a statement from the United Nations High Commissioner.
The protection of women's rights and equal access to education for boys and girls are key demands of the international community on the Taliban, which have not only been supported by the western states, but even by China and Russia.