How the Taliban’s New Burqa Order Threatens Economic and Workplace Progress for Afghanistan’s Women

May 17, 2022 | Olivia Peluso
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Afghanistan’s Taliban government has ordered women to cover their faces in public in a return to a signature policy of their past rule and an escalation of restrictions on women’s participation in society. The decree, issued by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice—which replaced the Ministry of Women’s Affairs—states that if a woman does not cover her face outside the home, her father or closest male relative will be warned, fined, and can eventually face potential prison or firing from state jobs.