Taliban orders UN female staff in Afghanistan to wear Hijab

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has ordered female staff members of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to wear the hijab.

On Monday, the 16th of May, the organization shared the Taliban’s directive to wear the hijab with its employees.

“Taliban claim new women’s dress rules are ‘advice’ but are imposing them as mandatory—including on Afghan women working at UN.” Heather Barr, Associate Director of the Women’s Rights division at Human Rights Watch, tweeted.

Despite Taliban rules, Barr called upon UNAMA on “how will [it] protect [its] colleagues’ safety & freedom?”.

According to a UNAMA statement, a delegation of Taliban officials from the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice told the UN that female employees should consider wearing the hijab, while reporting to duties.

The statement also notes that the personnel of the Ministry will stand outside the UN office to “monitor if hijab is used or not”. In an event if the personnel finds a female staff member without hijab, they will talk to her “politely” to wear it as wearing hijab is mandatory outside.

In addition to that, outside the UN office, the Ministry has also placed a poster calling on women to wear the “hijab.” Barr tweeted a photo of the poster, which shows a black layered Niqab and a bright blue Burqa (Chadari), as examples of hijab.

The Personnel of the Taliban’s Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice placed a poster as shown in the above figure ordering the female UN staff to wear hijab. The picture is borrowed from Barr’s twitter handle.

The Ministry, which had recently ordered that the hijab was mandatory, said the best type of hijab in the directive was Chadari or Burqa.

The Taliban had warned that if the women disobeyed the order, their parents would be punished and imprisoned.

(The Khaama Press)