The Leaflet, 9 March 2023
This article quotes AAN research on the Taleban’s hijab prescription:
Afghanistan does not have a strict dress code and a specific hijab to follow. According to the Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent non-profit policy research and analysis organisation, “[i]t has been extremely rare for Afghan woman, even in recent years, to choose to be seen in public bare-headed, but the style of a headscarf can vary from a very long full Iranian-style scarf which covers the head and clothes (often called chador namaz, as many women also wear it to pray) to much shorter and colorful scarves.”
In addition to these forms of hijab, some women also wear more strict forms of covering such as niqab, which would also cover the face, depending on how much of their face they wish to expose in the public eye such as markets or work. The most common colours for these garbs are blue (chadari) and black (niqab). As per the Afghanistan Analysts Network, when women tend to be in a large number somewhere or in an environment where they feel safe, they dress in more colourful headscarves. For many years, one would see professional women and those who tend to work wearing smaller scarves, with a minority of such groups not covering their heads or faces inside workplaces and universities.
Revisions:
This article was last updated on 24 Mar 2023
