According to reports from Herat, the officials have recently banned women without burqas from entering markets and government offices, marking another tightening of restrictions on women and girls across the country.

Images circulating on social media show female doctors and nurses at Herat Regional Hospital wearing full-body burqas while administering vaccines to children. Medical sources said Taliban officials have ordered that women without burqas are not permitted to enter hospitals or other public institutions.

Local authorities, including the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and the provincial governor's office, reportedly instructed hospitals and service centers last week to enforce the burqa mandate for all female staff and visitors.

In the latest instance, women were also denied entry to the provincial Civil Registration Department, where officials were told to bar access to anyone not fully veiled.

On Friday, Herat's Directorate of Hajj and Religious Affairs ordered clerics to instruct worshippers during Friday sermons to urge drivers not to transport women who do not wear burqas. Officials warned that drivers caught carrying unveiled women will face punishment.

Women's rights advocates have condemned the new restrictions as a violation of basic freedoms and a further attempt to erase women from public life.

Human rights groups and Afghan activists abroad have urged the international community to increase pressure on the current administration to end gender apartheid policies and restore women's access to work, education, and public spaces.

MENAFN08112025000228011069ID1110315164