One of the few remaining female surgeons at a major hospital in western Afghanistan was prevented from entering and detained for several hours on Monday, her husband said, as a draconian new Taliban requirement for all women to wear the all-covering burqa sparked anger and chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shabnam Fazli\u2019s husband said in a social media post that his wife was held in custody after trying to enter the Herat Regional Hospital. Taliban forces have for days been aggressively turning women away from the hospital for not wearing either the billowing garment, which covers the entire body and face, with only a grille to see out of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He didn\u2019t give a reason for her detention, but it came as a new requirement to wear either a burqa or Arabic-style abaya with a face covering was being aggressively enforced outside hospitals and government buildings and on public transport in Herat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since it was introduced last Wednesday, women seeking treatment have been turned away from hospitals because they weren\u2019t wearing the burqa, while access to government services has also been affected, causing widespread distress and triggering protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One woman said she waited outside a government office for hours trying to get her identity card processed, before being turned away. \u201cThey [the Taliban] come up with a new problem every day,\u201d she told Rukhshana Media. \u201cThe other day, the internet was cut off; now, they say you can\u2019t have your documents processed without a burqa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least four sources in Herat confirmed to Rukhshana Media that Taliban officers were stationed at the entrances of the main administrative complex, the provincial Department of Education, and the Herat Regional Hospital to enforce the decree<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ban\u2019s enforcement at the Herat Regional Hospital has drawn particular outrage. On November 5 and 6, Taliban officers prevented both sick women and female doctors without burqas from entering the hospital. Videos from the scene show women pleading for access, some carrying babies in their arms. In one clip, a Taliban officer at the hospital gate lashes a woman with a whip after an argument, shouting, \u201cDo you think I can\u2019t whip you?\u201d In another, a mother holding her infant begs, \u201cDo you mean our children should die? Why won\u2019t you let us into the hospital?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A middle-aged woman who had travelled from another district to visit her ill niece said she tried multiple times to enter but was repeatedly blocked. \u201cI\u2019ve been here since morning, but they won\u2019t let me in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The restriction also applies to female employees in Taliban-run offices. \u201cYesterday at noon, they told us to go and buy burqas, but we didn\u2019t take it seriously,\u201d said one government worker. \u201cThis morning, when we came to work, they didn\u2019t let us in and said we must wear one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Taliban\u2019s morality police have extended these restrictions to other areas of daily life. Drivers of city transport have reportedly been ordered not to allow women without burqas to board their vehicles. Shopkeepers, too, have been instructed not to let \u201cany woman enter a store without a burqa or an Arabic-style abaya with a face covering.\u201d Just weeks earlier, women were barred from entering Herat\u2019s popular \u201cFriday Market\u201d on the city\u2019s 64-Metre Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new restrictions mark a further escalation in the Taliban\u2019s campaign to erase women from public spaces, leaving many in Herat\u2014both patients and professionals\u2014trapped between the need for essential services and the regime\u2019s coercive dress-code enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Taliban have for some years required women to cover themselves from head to foot, and many in Herat wear the Iranian-style manto<\/em>\u2014a long coat and headscarf combination officially accepted as hijab in neighbouring Iran, which also imposes strict dress requirements on women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taliban officers appeared to favour the Arabic-style abaya and niqab, which covers the entire body except for the eyes, or the blue chadari<\/em>\u2014a burqa of South Asian origin that became widespread during their first rule in the late 1990s. That suggests not just a tightening of restrictions on women, but also on local cultural practices. The Taliban\u2019s roots are in southern Afghanistan, which does not share Herat\u2019s deep cultural, linguistic, and migratory links to Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the few remaining female surgeons at a major hospital in western Afghanistan was prevented from entering and detained for several hours on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[900,9581],"tags":[11473,11472,7225],"class_list":["post-37230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","category-our-work-en","tag-dress-rules","tag-pressure-on-women","tag-western-afghanistan"],"yoast_head":"\n