A law in August confirmed the restrictions imposed by the religious police on men and women.
Afghan Women Embrace New Era, Moving Away from Burqa. Young, urban women in Afghanistan are rapidly shedding the full-covering blue burqa with a face net that has become a symbol of the Taliban’s oppression of women.
Since their return to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed a very strict vision of Islamic law, consistent with their previous rule from 1996 to 2001.
But while women are still required to cover their bodies and faces, the restrictions from the feared religious police do not specifically mention the burqa.
So young women are instead following the fashion seen in many Gulf countries.
Many prefer the flowing abaya, which is worn with a hijab scarf and often covers the face as well – sometimes with a medical mask, or a Saudi-style cloth niqab that only exposes the eyes.
“The new generation will never accept wearing the burqa because of the design and color,” said Tehmina Adil, 23, in the capital Kabul.
With social media, “everyone follows trends,” added Adil, who was forced to drop her economics degree because of the Taliban government’s ban on women’s education.
“I prefer to wear the abaya because I am comfortable in it,” she said.
Young women in Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif said that abayas and headscarves, with variations in color, material and pattern, offer more freedom of expression than burqas.
“Only the elderly wear burqas,” said Razia Khaliq, as she embroidered one at a workshop in Mazar-e-Sharif.
Khaliq began wearing the burqa from head to toe at the age of 13, as did her mother and grandmother before her.
But her daughter, in her 20s, prefers the abaya.
“Young people wear the abaya because it’s more comfortable,” Khaliq said.
‘Pushing it’
The burqa has long roots in Afghanistan.
It was strictly enforced during the Taliban’s first rule in Afghanistan, when women were flogged for not wearing it in public.
But the combination of the abaya and the hijab headscarf has grown in popularity under the foreign-backed government.
When the Taliban retook Kabul in 2021, they promised to be more flexible than during their first term, when women were denied almost all rights.
They have gradually eliminated Afghan women from public spaces, in what the United Nations has called “gender-based discrimination.”
They have outlawed the loose-fitting headscarf that is commonly worn by civilian women.
Billboards have been erected to once again show women wearing the burqa or abaya, a headscarf that covers the face and head.
A law in August confirmed the restrictions imposed by the religious police on men and women.
It stipulates that, while women can go out “in case of necessity”, they must cover their heads.
“Whether it’s a burqa or a hijab, there’s no difference,” said Saif al-Islam Khaybar, a spokesman for the morality police, officially known as the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
Nasima, 40, insisted that “showing your face is a sin”.
But she admitted that she sometimes wears an abaya and a headscarf to free her nose and mouth from the “oppressive” burqa.
‘Very strange’
As Afghan Women Embrace New Era Neha, 22, said she was reprimanded for not wearing a burqa in public buildings, which are guarded by security forces from the Taliban authority.
It is common to be asked to readjust the headscarf, or ordered to add a medical mask.
“As soon as we enter the office, we are mistreated,” said Neha, who did not give her name.
Hayatullah Rafiqi, an expert on Pashtun culture, said that the burqa was “strictly banned” during the first Taliban regime — when some women were “lashed if they didn’t wear it” — but that “it is worn less today.”
The color of the burqas varies only by province, from blue to light brown and green to pink.
Gul Mohammad has been selling burqas in Kabul for 40 years, and he said many now come from China, which are made of nylon rather than cotton, making them cheaper and stronger but not as breathable.
“The Chinese burqa is very cold in winter, and it’s like fire in summer,” Gul said. “It makes women sweat.”
For Sabrina, 23, from the Taliban’s spiritual cradle of Kandahar, life under the burqa is fraught with disadvantages.
She is regularly lectured if she doesn’t wear it.
It was the first time she had worn it since the Taliban government regained control in 2021, and it wasn’t her choice.
“I couldn’t see my way, I didn’t know if I was going right or left,” she said. “It was so strange.”