Taliban Ban on Beauty Salons Is Protested by Afghan Women

Afghan women who own and operate in beauty salons gathered in Kabul over two days this week to voice their opposition to the Taliban’s recent decision to shut down their establishments.

The demonstrators appealed to Taliban commander Hibatullah Akhundzada, who is said to dwell in southern Kandahar province, avoids appearing in public, and does not interact with women, claiming that the decision would push their women-led homes into poverty.
The newest discriminatory measure implemented by Akhundzada’s so-called Islamic Emirate, which has earned Afghanistan the infamous moniker of “gender-apartheid regime” from human rights organizations, is his order to shut down all women’s beauty salons within a month.

“They shuttered colleges, schools, places of employment, and now they’re eliminating this opportunity for women as well. I’m not sure what the Islamic Emirate’s officials want from us, one lady told a local TV station, TOLOnews.

Another lady remarked, “Two houses with handicapped children rely on my employment.

Mohammad Sadiq Akif, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Sharia enforcement ministry, said that the contentious order to close the salons will be carried out in due time despite the protesting women’s appeals.

According to Akif, “We have already provided both economic and Islamic justifications.”

The Taliban claim that when women are brought to these businesses, the salons impose needless and unreasonable fees on men during their wedding rituals.

In a video message, Akif said that “they also implant hair and pluck eyebrows, which is against the Sharia.”

However, the protesting ladies claim that their salons rigorously adhere to personal hygiene and beauty services, abstaining from any non-Islamic customs.

Human rights organizations have vehemently denounced the Taliban’s directive to shut down the beauty parlors and charged the Islamist government of attempting to exclude women from all public spaces.

Taliban commanders claim that their choices are guided by Islamic principles and Afghan culture.

the cessation of teacher training

Taliban officials this week declared the closure of Afghanistan’s teacher training college amid a widely denounced restriction on females’ secondary education since the Islamist party took control in 2021.

Nearly 4,000 individuals worked at the institution, many of them women.

The education ministry of the Taliban declared the institution “ineffective and unnecessary” non a statement, adding that “the fate of all of its employees will be decided” soon.

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 female university students and 80% of Afghan females of school age are prohibited from attending school.