Taliban hunt a vital source of income for many women in Afghanistan. “They have a month to close or will be arrested”
The beauty salon from Kabul, devastated and closed after taking power by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Photo credit: Wakil Kohsar / AFP / Profimedia
The Taliban issued an order targeting the beauty salons that operate clandestinely in Afghanistan, warning the women who lead them to have a month to stop their activity or will be arrested.
Officially, all the beauty salons were closed by the Talibans in August 2023, which led to the suppression of 12,000 businesses and the loss of over 50,000 jobs for cosmetic women. However, clandestine salons have continued to operate in communities across the country, writes The Guardian.
Now, the Taliban has stated that they intend to eliminate these underground businesses, issuing orders to the leaders of the communities and the elderly from all over the country to identify the clandestine beauty salons and to report the people who lead them to the police to “prevent vice and promote virtue”.
Frestha, 38 years old, the mother of three young children, says she was working secret since the beauty salons have been banned, in 2023, because she had no option than to work and no other way to make money.
“When the Taliban closed our salons, I was the only source of family income; my husband was sick and I had three children to maintain,” she said.
“There is no one to hear us”
“But I continued to work because I felt good when I could play the beauty of a woman. When a woman was looking in the mirror and smiling, her happiness became my happiness.”
“Now I don't think I can continue, because the risk is too high, [dar] I don't know how to work something else. Our situation is very bad, but in this world there is no one to hear our voice or support us, ”added Frestha.
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, women have been forbidden to occupy most of the remunerated jobs, and girls have been forbidden to attend secondary school or university.
Groups for the defense of human rights say that Taliban applies a gender apartheid de facto system, preventing women from getting involved in any public life.
In addition to closing the beauty salons, sports halls and other common spaces, women are forbidden to walk in public parks, to travel without a male companion, they must completely cover when they leave the house and are not allowed to talk in public.
