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. UN special envoy for Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, is due to brief the 15-member council, said Norway’s UN mission, which requested the closed-door meeting “to address the increased restrictions on human rights and freedoms of girls and women.” Under the Taliban’s previous rule from 1996 to 2001, women had to cover up, could not work, and girls w…