Report
Afghan women facing the obligation to cover their faces
An Afghan woman walking in the old market next to a Taliban soldier in central Kabul, May 3, 2022. © Ebrahim Noroozi/AP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
In Afghanistan, the Taliban have ordered women to cover their faces in public.
This is a new restriction that affects the female population.
Since taking power on August 15, 2021, religious fundamentalists have imposed many restrictions on Afghan women.
They have been banned from political life, they no longer have the right to fly or travel beyond 72 km without a male relative.
Colleges and high schools are still closed to girls.
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With our regional correspondent,
Sonia Ghezali
In the streets of Herat, considered one of the most liberal cities in the country,
the news is a crushing blow
for young Afghan women.
Ferooza Wahidi is 20 years old.
"
When they force women only to do this, to do that, to wear such and such a garment, well, they take away our freedom, and it breaks our hearts
", declares the young woman.
The young student has seen her life change over the past nine months.
She says she no longer laughs in public, no longer dresses like they did under the previous regime.
Her friend Shekeba nods.
She explains that this new Taliban directive has already been applied for a long time.
“
I wear a mask because I have to.
When the Taliban saw us in the street with our faces uncovered, they punished us.
We didn't wear it before.
It's so difficult for us, but we have no choice.
»
A different point of view in the countryside
A woman in a burqa, a long, loose blue cape covering her face, defends the new regime.
"
I agree with them, it's good to wear the burqa,
" she says
.
For us in the villages this is not a problem.
I don't understand why in the cities women are against it.
»
Those who do not obey will expose their male relative to the sanctions of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which provides for three days' imprisonment in the event of several repeat offenses.
The backbone of the management of society by the Taliban is really the segregation of women who are excluded from social life, politics, school, work.
So it doesn't surprise me, it saddens me enormously.
Guissou Jahangiri (Fidh): "It's obviously very political, this control of the woman's body"
Heike Schmidt
►Also read: Driving license restrictions for women in Herat
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Afghanistan
Taliban
Womens rights