Taliban indicates full burqa not compulsory for women, education till university to continue

Is the Taliban of 2021 different from that of the 1990s? This is a common question being asked these days. However, we have to wait for some time to get an answer to this question. But in the hindsight, it appears so. Taliban has given the first indication on Tuesday that they would not make the full burqa compulsory for women.

This is quite contrary to their previous regime where they had made full burqa compulsory for women in the 1990s.

"The burqa is not the only hijab (headscarf) that (can) be observed, there are different types of hijab not limited to the burqa," Suhail Shaheen, spokesman for the group's political office in Doha, told Britain's Sky News. However, he did not specify the other types of hijab that would be deemed acceptable by the Taliban.

Another area of concern that is worrying the international community is that what will be the fate of women's education in Afghanistan now that the Taliban has taken over Afghanistan. Suhail Shaheen, spokesman of Taliban has a reply to it.

"Women can get education from primary to higher education that means university. We have announced this policy at international conferences, the Moscow conference and here at the Doha conference (on Afghanistan)," Shaheen said. Thousands of schools in areas captured by the Taliban were still operational, he added.

Earlier when there was a Taliban rule in Afghanistan from 1996-2001, schools for girls were closed, women were prevented from travelling and working, and women were forced to wear an all-covering burqa in public. The previous Taliban government imposed the strictest interpretations of sharia.

Taliban courts handed out extreme punishments including chopping off the hands of thieves and stoning to death women accused of adultery.

(With Agency Inputs)