Afghan women express defiance
Women in Afghanistan yesterday expressed defiance after the Taliban issued a directive ordering them to cover fully in public, including their faces, or stay indoors, saying the change would effectively leave them "imprisoned".
Afghanistan's supreme leader and Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada approved the order on Saturday in a move that threatens to push freedoms back toward the harsh rule imposed by the Islamists when they previously held power between 1996-2001.
It also goes against promises about a softer rule made to the international community after the Taliban took power in August last year.
"I am being imprisoned. I can't live in freedom and all my social life is being controlled by the Taliban," activist Tahmina Taham, a former government employee who lost her job after the Taliban stormed back to power last year, told AFP.
There were no immediate signs of Akhundzada's order being followed in Kabul yesterday, with many women seen on the streets without covering their faces.
In the western city of Herat, resident Fatima Rezaie said many women were now defiant and won't accept changes imposed by force.
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