Global Courant
ISLAMABAD — ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban are banning beauty salons for women in Afghanistan, a government spokesman said Tuesday.
It is the latest restriction on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls, following edicts barring them from access to education, public spaces and most forms of employment.
A spokesman for the Taliban-led Ministry of Virtue and Vice, Mohammad Sidik Akif Mahajar, did not provide details about the ban. He only confirmed the contents of a letter circulating on social media.
The letter issued by the ministry, dated June 24, says it is a verbal order from the Supreme Leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. The ban targets the capital, Kabul and all provinces, and gives salons across the country a month’s notice to wind down their business. After that period, they must close and report on their closure. The letter gives no reasons for the ban.
The release comes days after Akhundzada claimed his government has taken necessary steps to improve the lives of women in Afghanistan.
It drew criticism from human rights and women’s rights defenders on social media.
The United Nations also said on Tuesday it was in talks with authorities in Afghanistan to overturn the ban on beauty salons. The UN Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, took to Twitter urging the Taliban to stop the edict.
“This new restriction on women’s rights will have a negative impact on the economy and contradicts support for female entrepreneurship,” the statement said.
Earlier, a beauty salon owner said she was her family’s sole breadwinner after her husband was killed in a car bomb attack in 2017. She did not want to be named or name her salon for fear of reprisal.
Every day, eight to 12 women visit her salon in Kabul, she said.
“Day after day, they (the Taliban) restrict women,” she told The Associated Press. “Why do they only target women? Are we not human? Don’t we have the right to work or to live?”
Despite initial promises of a more moderate rule than during their previous stint in power in the 1990s, the Taliban have imposed harsh measures since taking over Afghanistan in August 2021 when US and NATO forces withdrew.
They have banned women from public spaces, such as parks and gyms, and cracked down on media freedoms. The measures have sparked a fierce international upheaval, deepening the country’s isolation at a time when its economy has collapsed – and exacerbating a humanitarian crisis.
