The restrictions on women’s movement and dress are the harshest that the Taliban have announced since they came to power in August.
Saturday’s announcement seemed to confirm the fears of many Afghans that the Taliban remained unchanged after two decades out of power.
However, it wasn’t clear what legislative stages — if any — the directive still had to go through to be implemented.
Her brother, father, husband or son will be tasked with enforcing the rules, and they will be held to account if she defies them.
Today, the Taliban announced that women have to veil in public – that is, wear loose clothing and cover their faces except for their eyes.
Well, there was an announcement made at a press conference today held by a ministry that’s particularly hard-line.
It’s an Afghan woman’s male guardian who will be punished if she defies those rules.
MARTIN: You know, I’m remembering that many people thought the Taliban would do this on day one, but they didn’t.
And so it’s really in the urban areas like Kabul, where more liberal-minded women and girls wear pants, long shirts and headscarves – they’re the ones that will notice the difference.
They’ve come under a lot of pressure lately from relative moderates within the movement because it was the hardliners who were behind the ban on girls attending secondary school – and a reminder that that ban is still in force for most Afghan girls.
What this effectively does is it really restricts most Afghan women’s movements because when the Taliban say a woman should stay home, it’s really up to a local commander how he’s going to interpret that.
When the Taliban say it’s a male guardian who will be punished for this, what they’re doing is reducing a woman to the status of a minor in the eyes of their laws because she’s not punished for this.
just issued a statement saying that this directive was in contradiction to the numerous assurances they were given by the Taliban.