Taliban Orders Hair and Beauty Salons in Afghanistan to Close

An Afghan beautician attends a customer at a beauty salon in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, on June 27, 2023. Atif Aryan/AFP via Getty Images

The Taliban in Afghanistan has ordered beauty salons in the country to close within a month, according to a Taliban spokesperson, marking another blow to Afghan women’s rights since the regime seized power nearly two years ago.

Mohammad Sadiq Akif, a spokesman for the Taliban-led Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, said on Tuesday that the deadline for shutting beauty parlors is one month, starting from July 2, when they were first informed of the move.

An Afghan woman reacting to the notice told the BBC that hair salons in Kabul and other cities will be closed as well. “It’s more shocking news for Afghan women,” she told the network. “I went out and saw all the salons in my locality were closed.”

Another Afghan woman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Taliban’s latest decree is to “eliminate women at every level of public life” and prevent women from serving other women.

“The Taliban are taking away the most basic human rights from Afghan women,” she said.

The announcement comes as foreign governments and the United Nations (U.N.) have denounced growing restrictions on women since the Taliban seized power in 2021 following the defeat of a U.S.-backed government amid the withdrawal of foreign forces.

Beauty salons sprung up in Kabul and other Afghan cities in the months after the Taliban was driven from power in late 2001, weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States.

Many remained open after the Islamist extremist group returned to power two years ago but with their signs and windows covered up, providing some women with jobs and their customers with their services.

The Taliban-led ministry has not given any reason for the ban, or if there would be any alternatives for women once the salons close.

In a post on Twitter Tuesday, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) called on “the de facto authorities” in Afghanistan to halt the edict closing beauty parlors, noting another set of restrictions on women’s rights will negatively impact the economy and “contradicts stated support for women entrepreneurship.”

“UNAMA remains engaged [with] stakeholders seeking reversal of the bans,” the organization said.

Taliban Repression of Women

When the Taliban toppled the democratically elected government in 2021, the regime initially promised to protect women’s and girls’ rights while implementing a more moderate form of Islamic rule compared to its previous time in power from 1996 to 2001.

However, it has since imposed harsh measures impacting a wide range of women’s rights, including barring them from education and public spaces, as well as removing certain job opportunities. Many public places including bathhouses, gyms, and parks have been closed to women.

Earlier this year, the Taliban also banned Afghan women from working with the U.N. in Afghanistan, a move widely condemned by the U.N. Security Council, which called the decision “unprecedented in the history” of the intergovernmental organization.

Women have also mostly been barred from working for most NGOs, despite the Taliban vowing in September 2021 that all humanitarian workers, including both men and women, would be guaranteed safety, security, and freedom of movement.

While the regime has been widely known for its human rights issues, the Taliban has tried to gain formal recognition by the U.N. as Afghanistan’s legitimate government. At this time, no country recognizes the Taliban as a legitimate government, and the former government of President Ashraf Ghani still holds the country’s U.N. seat.

Western governments and international organizations have signaled that restrictions on women are hampering any possible progress toward international recognition for the Taliban.

The regime, however, insists that it respects women’s rights in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic law and Afghan customs.

Reuters contributed to this report.

From NTD News