US ‘concerned’ after Taliban orders Afghan women to cover faces: State dept

The United States is “concerned” by the erosion of women’s rights in Afghanistan, a State Department spokesperson said Saturday, after the Taliban ordered Afghan women to cover their faces in public.

“We are extremely concerned that the rights and progress Afghan women and girls have achieved and enjoyed over the last 20 years are being eroded,” the spokesperson said, adding that Washington and its international partners “remain deeply troubled by recent steps the Taliban have taken directed at women and girls, including restrictions on education and travel.”

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Earlier on Saturday, Afghanistan’s supreme leader and Taliban chief ordered the country’s women to wear the all-covering burqa in public - one of the harshest controls imposed on women’s lives since the Taliban seized power.

“They should wear a chadori (head-to-toe burqa) as it is traditional and respectful,” said a decree issued by Hibatullah Akhundzada that was released by Taliban authorities at a function in Kabul.

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