Taliban Mandates Burqa for Female Teachers and Staff in Herat
The Taliban administration in Afghanistan’s Herat province has reimposed strict dress code regulations for women, making it mandatory for all female school teachers to wear the burqa.
Local sources told Afghanistan International that Noor Ahmad Islamjar, the Taliban-appointed governor of Herat, announced the directive during an official meeting last week. According to the order, no female teacher is allowed to enter schools without wearing the burqa.
An audio recording is reportedly circulating among teachers and civil servants in Herat, in which a person believed to be a school official states that the Taliban’s education department has emphasized that women cannot be present in classrooms without wearing the burqa. A photograph shared along with the message shows a group of female teachers wearing the traditional covering inside a school.
According to Amu TV, the restrictions are not limited to schools. Over the past few days, women without burqas have reportedly been denied access to institutions such as the provincial hospital, the central prison, the civil registry office, the education department, and even banks. Eyewitnesses claim that despite wearing Islamic hijab, many women were forced to wait outside for hours without being granted entry.
A Herat resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Amu TV that she was barred from entering the civil registry office on Thursday because she wasn’t wearing a burqa, despite adhering to a full Islamic hijab. She urged the Taliban authorities not to make life even harder for Afghan women.
Another resident reported being denied entry to Herat’s provincial hospital while visiting a sick family member, along with other women dressed in prayer shawls. She added that even female doctors were not allowed to enter the hospital to treat their patients despite being properly covered.
Local sources have also confirmed that employees of international organizations, including Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and the Red Crescent Society, must now also wear the burqa to be allowed into their offices.
The Taliban administration in Herat had previously banned the wearing of manteaux (coats) for women and had designated the prayer shawl as the only acceptable form of dress. Now, with the burqa made compulsory even for teachers and medical professionals, public space for women in Herat continues to shrink drastically.
These Taliban-imposed measures have drawn condemnation from civil society groups and women’s rights advocates. In a statement, the Afghan Women’s History Transformation Movement described the decision as a “clear, continuous, and systematic violation of women’s human rights and dignity,” and called for an immediate end to these restrictive policies.
