Unveiled women try to look like ‘animals,’ say Taliban in Afghanistan

Taliban religious police in the Afghan city of Kandahar put up street signs claiming that Muslim women who do not wear a full-face veil are “trying to look like animals,” an official confirmed Thursday.

Since they came to power in August, the taliban They have imposed severe restrictions on Afghan women, eroding gains made in the two decades since the United States invaded the country and toppled the Islamist group’s previous government.

In May, the supreme leader of the taliban Hibatullah Akhundzada, passed a decree stating that it is better for women to stay at home.

So, he issued an order for women to fully cover their bodies and faces in public.

This week the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which is in charge of enforcing the strict interpretation of Islam that the group defends, put up posters in the streets of Kandahar with images of women wearing burkas, clothing that covers the body from head to toe.

“Muslim women who do not wear the hijab are trying to look like animals,” warn the posters about the use of the full veil.

The poster warns that wearing shorts, tight clothing or see-through clothing is also against Akhundzada’s decrees.

A high-ranking local official confirmed the display of the posters.

“We put up these posters and the families of the women who are not covered will be informed and the corresponding measures will be taken with the decree,” Abdul Rahman Tayebi, a local representative of the ministry, told AFP. Kandahar.

The decree of Akhundzada orders the authorities to warn or suspend from their jobs officials who are relatives of women who do not comply with the regulations.

On Wednesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet criticized the Taliban for their “systematic and institutionalized oppression” of women.