KABUL (Reuters) -Afghanistan's Taliban government ordered women on Saturday to cover their faces in public, a return to a signature policy of their past hardline rule and an escalation of restrictions that are causing anger at home and abroad. A decree from the group's supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, said that if a woman did not cover her face outside home, her father or closest male relative would be visited and face potential prison or firing from state jobs. The ideal face covering was the all-encompassing blue burqa, which was obligatory for women in public during the Taliban's previous 1996-2001 rule, the group said.
Journalist Hizbullah Khan has captured images of women trapped in cages and fighting for food in his home of Afghanistan. "Currently, the Taliban are using women's rights for their bargaining," Khan said. "They don't have any source to feed their children, to feed themselves, so the economic crisis is unprecedented," Khan said.