The United Nations Security Council will meet on Thursday to discuss an order by Afghanistan's Taliban for women to cover their faces in public, a return to a signature policy of the Islamist group's past hardline rule and an escalation of restrictions.
U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, is due to brief the 15-member council, said Norway's U.N. mission, which requested the closed-door meeting "to address the increased restrictions on human rights and freedoms of girls and women."
