In Afghanistan, Taliban diktat sparks debate about women’s attire

Kabul, Afghanistan – Many Afghan women in the capital Kabul have protested the posters campaign launched by the Taliban, encouraging women to wear a burqa or headscarf.

The Afghan Ministry for the promotion of virtues and prevention of deputy poster plaster crosses the cafe and Kabul shop earlier this month to encourage the use of burqas, the entire body veil that also covers the face. It did not issue official direction.

According to Islamic law, a Muslim woman must observe the headscarf, “Poster wrote, along with pictures of blue Burqa-Clad women and the others with full black. The word” headscarf “accompanies each image as if to clarify what the shape is like.

Many Muslim women around the world choose to wear headscarves – in various styles – as their expression of faith and part of their cultural identity.

Afghan women traditionally wore Burqa – mostly sold in blue, white and gray nuances – but black robes are less common throughout the country.

The Taliban, who returned to power in August, has clarified that the dress code is not mandatory, but insisting women must cover their bodies as required by their Islamic faith. During their last task in power between 1996 and 2001, the use of Burqa was strictly enforced.

At present, the streets in the center of Kota Kabul are filled with women wearing various hijab styles. While some dresses in Burqas covered their faces, others wear a hijab and a variety of traditional and western mixes.

Many Afghan women don’t see what Furs are about – because the hijab has become part of many daily women’s clothing Afghanistan

As a Afghan woman, we know the rights and obligations of our religion, “said Jamila Afghani, an activist of women’s rights and former Deputy Minister of Manpower and Social.

“It must be a choice for women to wear what he wants,” said Afghani, who also heads the Women’s International League for peace and freedom (WILPF) in Afghanistan.

To Afghani, this campaign also shows Taliban obsessions with insignificant problems in the midst of an increasingly deep economic crisis that has made many families unable to feed their children.

“They must be busy doing things more important than women’s clothing,” Afghan said. “Most women are wearing traditional chadors [shawls or headscarves], so why is this even raised.”

Service to promote the virtues and prevention of representatives of representatives of Deputy Muhammad Akif Muhajir told Al Jazeera that because the hijab or burqa is a “Quran command”, Muslim women must wear it.

If Shariah commands them [women] to do something they have to do on it, “he said, adding that the headscarf or burqa could be” whatever a woman used to cover her body … headscarves or in some parts of the woman use big scarves to cover themselves “.

Although there is no policy to impose the use of burqas, or punishment for women who do not comply with advisers, there are sporadic reports about the Taliban army who try to uphold it.

“These things tend to be troubled by the absence of clear guidelines and training for fighters,” Obaidullah Baheer, a lecturer on transitional justice at American University in Afghanistan.

Afghan agrees. “Burqa has been part of Afghan culture for a long time, especially in villages and remote areas, even in cities among older women,” he said, adding that his mother and grandmother used it.

Ghumkhor noted that “hijab and opening have become a reductionist lens where complex social, political and economic conditions are being read.”

While the imposition of veils must be protested, “Over-presence in the feminist imagination Afghanistan needs to be interrogated, especially when the country is starving,” he said.