Authorities in Afghanistan, under the Taliban, have mandated that female patients and staff must wear the full-body burqa to access public health services in the western city of Herat.
The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that these restrictions, which are based on Islamic law, began on November 5, according to the BBC.
Sarah Chateau, who manages MSF’s programs in Afghanistan, expressed to the BBC that these measures further complicate women’s lives and restrict their healthcare access. She noted that even those who urgently need treatment are being impacted.
MSF, which is involved in pediatric care at Herat Regional Hospital, stated there was a 28% drop in critical patient admissions within the first few days of implementing this new law, as reported by the BBC.
Chateau mentioned that Taliban personnel were stationed at the hospital entrance, obstructing entry for women not wearing a burqa. The burqa is a full-covering veil, typically with just a mesh screen for visibility.
A spokesperson from the Ministry of Virtue Propagation and Prevention, Saif al-Islam Khyber, dismissed claims that women were being coerced into wearing burqas, labeling them as misunderstandings. He asserted, “This is completely false. The Ministry of Vice’s position concerns the wearing of the hijab in general.”
The term hijab generally refers to body covering but is often used to describe the headscarf that Muslim women are required to wear.
The United Nations special envoy for Afghanistan cautioned in 2022 that the Taliban’s aspiration for international recognition would be “nearly impossible” to achieve unless they lifted restrictions on women.
The Taliban enforced the burqa during its first period of rule in the 1990s.
Since regaining power in August 2021, the Taliban has imposed various restrictions, particularly affecting women, as per their interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.
