UN ambassador calls Taliban’s order for women to cover their faces ‘unconscionable’

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said on Sunday that it is “unconscionable” for the Taliban to order women in Afghanistan to cover their faces. 

During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” moderator Jake Tapper asked Thomas-Greenfield about the new order by the Afghan government that requires women to cover their faces in public, a return to hard-line restrictions that were in place by the Taliban prior to the U.S.-led invasion.

The order also punishes the father or closest male relative to a woman caught exposing her face.

“Doesn’t this underlying even further the problem of the U.S. withdrawal without a competent government in place?” Tapper asked Thomas-Greenfield. 

“You know, it shows again what the Taliban are capable of,” Thomas-Greenfield told Tapper. “We said from day one, we will judge them by their actions, not their words. And these actions, on Mother’s Day, I think sends a very chilling message across the world.”

“We have done everything possible to support Afghan women and will continue to call out the Taliban for their actions, both the United States but also in my role in the Security Council, as president of the Security Council,” Thomas-Greenfield added. 

Thomas-Greenfield called the Taliban’s latest move “unconscionable.”

“What they did today is unconscionable. And I am sure that we can expect more from them,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “And it just redoubles our commitment to supporting Afghan women moving forward.”

The Taliban took over Afghanistan in August following the U.S. military’s final withdrawal from the country after 20 years of war following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The government said the ideal face covering for women would be a blue burqa, the same garment many Afghan women wore during the Taliban’s tenure prior to 2001.