The Taliban is cracking down on its already extreme dress code rules in a part of Afghanistan where women and girls had previously been allowed to show their faces. Officials with de facto authority are now enforcing burkas, which completely cover the head and face and hide the body from the ground up, in the western city of Herat, where women and girls once played on football and volleyball teams before August 2021. Female medical staff and patients have reportedly been delayed from entering hospitals until they don the garments.
