page_title: Hijab by country
section_title: Afghanistan
hierarchical_section_title: Hijab by country / Muslim world / Afghanistan
caption_attribution_description: English: Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan (CCAA) in Kabul, Afghanistan. فارسی: مرکز هنرهای معاصر افغانستان در کابل
context_page_description: The word hijab refers to both the head-covering traditionally worn by some Muslim women and Islamic styles of dress in general.
  The garment has different legal and cultural status in various countries. In the Indonesian Aceh province, Muslim women are required to wear the hijab and all women are required to do so in Iran.
  France has banned overt religious symbols, including many religious headcoverings, in public schools and government buildings. Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Tunisia and Turkey are the only Muslim-majority countries which have banned the hijab in public schools and universities or government buildings, while Syria and Egypt banned face veils in universities from July 2010 and 2015 respectively. In other Muslim states such as Morocco, there have been complaints of restriction or discrimination against women who wear the hijab. The hijab in these cases is seen as a sign of political Islam or fundamentalism against secular government.
  Islamic dress, notably the variety of headdresses worn by Muslim women, has become a prominent symbol of the presence of Islam in western Europe.
context_section_description: There is no legal hijab enforcement in Afghanistan, but it is predominantly worn largely due to cultural pressure. In the mid-20th century many women in urban areas did not wear head covering, but this ended with the outbreak of civil war in the 1990s. The Afghan chadri is a regional style of burqa with a mesh covering the eyes. It has been worn by Pashtun women since pre-Islamic times and was historically seen as a mark of respectability. The burqa became a symbol of the conservative and totalitarian Taliban rule, who strictly enforced female adults to wear the dress. Although the Taliban regime ended in 2001, some women continue to wear it out of security concerns or as a cultural practice. Opposers to the burqa claim it is not Islamic, nor part of Afghan culture.
caption: Female art students in Afghanistan
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