Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Taliban-style edict for women spreads alarm in Afghan district | Reuters

 An Afghan woman is reflected in a mirror as she walks in Kabul February 11, 2013. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail

Just days after the United States launched a $200 million program to boost the role of women in Afghanistan, a senior member of the country's top religious leaders' panel said he would not intervene over a draconian edict issued by clerics in the Deh Salah region of Baghlan province.

Deh Salah, near Panshir, was a bastion of anti-Taliban sentiment prior to the ousting of the austere Islamist government by the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in 2001.

But the eight article decree, issued late in June, bars women from leaving home without a male relative, while shutting cosmetic shops on the pretext they were being used for prostitution - an accusation residents and police reject.

Taliban-style edict for women spreads alarm in Afghan district | Reuters

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