Lantern of Freedom Movement Condemns Taliban’s Burqa Mandate

Sent to Zan TV

Members of the Lantern of Freedom of Afghanistan Women Movement held a protest on Tuesday (11 November) against the Taliban’s recent order making the wearing of the burqa mandatory for women in Herat province.

In a statement issued by the movement, it said: “The imposition of compulsory dress violates women’s human dignity and individual freedom. Islam is a faith of awareness and choice, not coercion and fear. Clothing has value only when it comes from inner faith and conviction, not from orders and threats.”

The Lantern of Freedom Movement stressed that no regime has the right to use women’s bodies and clothing as a tool to project political or religious power.

The statement added: “Women’s freedom is an inseparable part of a society’s freedom; a society that imprisons its women condemns itself to the darkness of ignorance.”

Referring to Afghan women’s resilience, the movement wrote: “Women have kept the light of awareness burning even in the darkest years, and the Taliban, through forced veiling, are trying to extinguish that light.”

The protest took place amid the Taliban’s recent enforcement of compulsory burqa use in Herat province. Women without a burqa are reportedly barred from entering hospitals, schools, and public transport; a move women’s rights activists describe as “part of the Taliban’s systematic policy to erase women entirely from public life.”