KABUL - Religious police of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement have ordered all students across the country to wear turbans in class saying it was an Islamic tradition that must be followed, residents said.
Religious police issued orders for students from grade one to six to wear black turbans and pupils in higher grades to wear white ones.
Residents in the capital, Kabul, said on Wednesday students who did not follow the instructions have been turned away from their classrooms since the start of the new school year on March 21.
Taliban officials said the policy was aimed for "better arrangement of education system," covering more than 1.6 million students in areas controlled by them.
They did not elaborate but the Taliban say wearing a turban is a tradition of Islam's Prophet Mohammad and should be followed by Muslims in an Islamic country.
The radical Taliban movement controls more than 90 percent of the war-ravaged country. The rest is ruled by the Northern Alliance opposition led by military commander Ahmed Shah Masood.
Wearing western clothes in educational institutions is already banned by the Taliban who swept to power in 1996 and immediately closed all schools for girls.
The Islamic militia says it opposes co-education and has no resources to build separate facilities for women.
It has also banned subjects deemed un-Islamic such as sculpture and music.
The Taliban have often come under international criticism for their human rights record and treatment of women.
Earlier this month the Taliban were widely condemned for the destruction of all statues in the country, including ancient Buddhist carvings, on the grounds they were un-Islamic idols.
05:00 03-28-01
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