Women not wearing hijab ‘trying to look like animals’, say Taliban posters

• The Taliban’s religious police have posted posters across the Afghan city of Kandahar.
• Women who do not wear a full-body Islamic hijab are “trying to look like animals,” they claim.
• The Taliban have put tight restrictions on Afghan women since taking power in August.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – The Taliban’s religious police have posted posters across the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, claiming that Muslim women who do not wear a full-body Islamic hijab are “trying to look like animals,” according to an official.

Since taking power in August, the Taliban have put tight restrictions on Afghan women, reversing the achievements made in the two decades since the US invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban’s previous rule.

Hibatullah Akhundzada, the country’s supreme leader and Taliban chief, signed a proclamation in May stating that women should normally stay at home.

If they had to go out in public, they were told to cover themselves entirely, including their faces.

The Taliban’s feared Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which enforces the group’s rigid interpretation of Islam, put up posters depicting burqas, a form of garment that covers a woman’s whole body from head to toe, across Kandahar city this week.

The posters, which have been slapped on several cafes and stores as well as advertising hoardings across Kandahar — the Taliban’s de facto power centre — declare that Muslim women who do not wear the hijab are attempting to seem like animals.

According to the posters, wearing short, tight, and revealing clothing was also against Akhundzada’s rule.

The ministry’s spokesman in Kabul, the capital, could not be reached for comment, but a top local official confirmed the posters’ placement.

“We have put up these posters, and those ladies whose faces are not covered (in public) will be informed, and we will take steps in accordance with the regulation,” Abdul Rahman Tayebi, the Kandahar ministry’s head, told AFP.

Male relatives of women who do not comply are warned and sometimes fired from government jobs, according to Akhundzada’s rule.

The burqa, which was made required for women during the Taliban’s first term in office, is widely worn outside of Kabul.

Michelle Bachelet, the UN’s human rights director, criticised the Taliban government’s “institutionalised systemic abuse” of women on Wednesday.

“It’s a life or death situation for them,” she said.

The Taliban promised a gentler version of their prior brutal style of administration if they regained control.

Women, on the other hand, have been subjected to a slew of restrictions since August.

Thousands of girls have been prevented from attending secondary schools, and many women have been barred from returning to government employment.

Women are also prohibited from travelling alone and are only permitted to attend public parks in the capital on days when men are prohibited from doing so.