Taliban religious police threatened to shoot women working for NGOs in a northwestern province of Afghanistan if they did not wear the burqa, AFP learned Friday January 21 from employees of these organizations .
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Representatives of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Badghis province met with humanitarian organizations on Sunday, two local members of international NGOs told AFP. “They told us (…) that if our female staff came to the office without wearing the burqa, they would shoot themsaid one source, requesting anonymity for security reasons.
Women largely excluded from public employment
The Taliban also demanded that these women be accompanied by a male chaperone, she added. The second humanitarian source confirmed this information. “They also said they would visit every office unannounced to make sure the rules are followed.“, she explained. A written notification, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, was sent to NGOs working in the province. It does not contain death threats, but asks women to veil themselves.
The burqa is a full veil with a fabric grid at eye level, traditionally worn for decades in the most conservative areas of the country, and whose wearing was compulsory under the first Taliban regime (1996-2001). Islamist fundamentalists, who had largely trampled on human rights when they first came to power, took over the country in mid-August after 20 years of armed insurgency. If the Taliban, who seek to be recognized by the international community, claim to have modernized, they have gradually excluded women from public life, arousing the concern of the international community.
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Women thus remain largely excluded from public employment, are not allowed to travel long distances without being accompanied by a male relative, and secondary schools for girls remain mostly closed. If the Taliban have been careful not to impose too strict edicts at the national level, several measures aimed at imposing their rigorous vision of Islam have been imposed in certain provinces.