Burqa not mandatory for women but wear hijab for security, says Taliban

Doha: Taliban would not make the full burqa compulsory for women, as they did last time when they ruled Afghanistan, the group informed on Tuesday as per a report by Agence France-Presse.

Taliban spokesperson for the group's political office in Doha, Suhail Shaheen, told Britain's Sky News that the burqa is not the only hijab and different types of hijab are not limited to the burqa, he said.

A burqa is one over-garment covering the entire head and body, leaving a mesh panel to see through. During the extremists' 1996-2001 strict rule, girls' schools were shut down; women were prohibited from travelling and working and forced to wear an all-covering burqa in public.

However, Shaheen did not specify the types of hijab that are deemed acceptable by the Taliban now.

Many countries and rights groups have raised the question of the fate of women's education now in Afghanistan in the Taliban regime, as the militants have entered Kabul's capital city on Sunday. Regarding this, Shaheen said that women could get education from primary to university education, which the Taliban had announced at international conferences of Moscow and Doha. He added that thousands of schools are still operational in areas under the control of the Taliban.

The previous Taliban administration had imposed extreme religious policing to suppress "vice" through a strict interpretation of Sharia. The courts had also imposed strict punishments for crimes, which still haunt observers and trigger frequent media queries to the Taliban more than its political policies do.