The Taliban have ordered all Afghan women to wear the all-covering burka in public.
The blue burka became a global symbol of the Taliban’s previous regime in the country from 1996 until 2001.
The decision to make it mandatory again marks an escalation of growing restrictions on women in public.
The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice read the decree from the group’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada at a press conference in Kabul.
“We want our sisters to live with dignity and safety,” said Khalid Hanafi, acting minister for the Taliban’s ministry.
The decree says a woman’s father or closest male relative would be visited and eventually imprisoned or fired from government jobs if she did not cover her face outside the home.
They added the ideal face covering was the blue burka.
Most women in Afghanistan wear a headscarf for religious reasons, but many in urban areas such as Kabul do not cover their faces.
