The Taliban hold strict standards for women's behaviour and dress, based on a fundamentalist interpretation of the Hanafi jurisprudence which is enforced through surveillance and violence. Human rights groups and the United Nations (UN) have been critical of the group's treatment of women. The UN has said that the Taliban's policy of strict separation of men and women may amount to gender apartheid.
During their first rule of Afghanistan, the Taliban were notorious internationally for their misogyny and violence against women. In 1996, women were mandated to wear the burqa at all times in public. Women were not allowed to work, nor continue their education beyond the age of eight.