The Taliban on Saturday ruled Afghan women must cover their faces, according to a decree from the group's supreme leader, an escalation of growing restrictions on women in public that is drawing a backlash from the international community and many Afghans.

A spokesperson for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice read the decree from the group's supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada at a press conference in Kabul, saying that a woman's father or closest male relative would be visited and eventually imprisoned or fired from government jobs if she did not cover her face outside the home.

They added...