A Taliban decree issued this month will close about 3,000 women-run hair salons in Kabul. Above: A young woman visits a salon in Kabul to prepare for a wedding reception. A ministry spokesman said the reason for the ban was that Afghan men were pressured into debt to pay for wedding makeup for their brides and women.
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KABUL — Afghan women are reacting with panic and dismay as the Taliban’s ban on beauty salons emerges in the capital, Kabul. It is the latest of dozens of ordinances that restrict women and girls from public life. limitations very serious that the United Nations warned that the Taliban may be responsible for sexism and crimes against humanity of gender repression.
The salon ban could also be one of the heaviest economic losses for women since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan nearly two years ago. When it goes into effect at the end of July, it will close about 3,000 women-run beauty salons in Kabul, which employ thousands of people. Beauty salons are one of the few places where women can work openly under Taliban rule.
An Afghan beautician applies makeup to a client at a salon in Mazar-i-Sharif.
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An Afghan beautician applies makeup to a client at a salon in Mazar-i-Sharif.
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Just as important, they are one of the last places where women and girls can congregate. Forbidden girls school outside sixth grade. Women are excluded from most occupations outside of teaching and healthcare. They were not allowed to go to the park, which was once a popular family pastime.
“I’ve been crying since I heard the news. I’m crying at the shop. All my assistants are crying,” said Samia Faqiri, a 38-year-old shop owner whose business supports her family. “What are we going to do after this?”
Afghan beauty at work. Rina Amiri, the US special envoy to Afghanistan, tweeted: “Taliban’s ban on beauty salons has removed another vital space for women’s work at a time when they are struggling to get a feed the family.”
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The ban was quickly condemned by United Nations officials and Western diplomats such as Rina AmiriUS special envoy to Afghanistan. “The Taliban’s ban on beauty salons has eliminated another vital space for women’s work at a time when they are struggling to feed their families, eliminating one of the few shelters for women. for women outside of the family and continue to make the country a foreign and extremist enclave in the world,” Amiri tweeted.
Afghans who can afford it often have lavish weddings, and many can’t get into debt to party. An important part of the celebration is a makeover at the beauty salon to transform the bride and female family members into big-haired Afghan beauty queens with glamorous eyes, crystal face jewelry and eyebrows carefully shaped and groomed.
A client at a salon in Kabul on July 8, days after the Taliban ban was announced, which took effect at the end of the month. Sadiq Akif Mahjer, a ministry spokesman, said in a video posted on Twitter that haircuts and eyebrow plucking are considered disgusting and even forbidden by many conservative Muslims.
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A client at a salon in Kabul on July 8, days after the Taliban ban was announced, which took effect at the end of the month. Sadiq Akif Mahjer, a ministry spokesman, said in a video posted on Twitter that haircuts and eyebrow plucking are considered disgusting and even forbidden by many conservative Muslims.
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Even in a country where most people struggle to get a steady meal, it’s not uncommon to see convoys of shiny cars, decorated with roses, approaching the decorated wedding hall. elaborately decorated with thousands of lights.
And so beauty salons have become a rare reliable source of money for Afghan women, even under the Taliban.
That’s why shop owner Samia Faqiri got into business. Her husband and son couldn’t find work as a taxi driver, but brides always needed makeup. Faqiri says her shop is thriving – bringing in about $700 a month. She was even able to hire eight other women, including makeup artists, brow embroiderers, and hair stylists.
A beauty salon in Kabul on July 7.
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A beauty salon in Kabul on July 7.
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Faqiri said the women she recruits are mostly single mothers or have to support their families because they don’t have fathers. “They were the only ones working in their family,” she said. “They paid the rent from this money, all their expenses.”
another beauty salon the owner, Yalda Hashimi, 22, says she is supporting her family – in fact she has worked in beauty salons since the age of 7. Her father hadn’t been able to work for decades, she said, so she started making money keeping as a child, so she started sweeping floors and quickly learned the craft. Two years ago, she opened her own business, the business was so successful that she hired seven women. “They’re all like me: we’re the sole breadwinner for our family,” she said.
A beauty salon in Kabul. After the Taliban came to power in 2021, salon owners were ordered to cover up storefront images of women’s faces adorned with eyeshadow and false eyelashes – an act accursed for The Taliban, who demanded that women and girls wear black robes, including their faces.
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News of the ban appeared on July 4, after the Taliban admitted rumors they had told Kabul city officials not to renew the salons’ licenses next month, leaving them outlawed. The order comes from the Department of Crime Prevention and Ethics Promotion, which ensures Afghans adhere to the Taliban’s ultra-conservative interpretation of Islamic law.
Sadiq Akif Mahjer, a ministry spokesman, said the reason for the ban was that Afghan men were pressured into debt to pay for wedding makeup for their brides and their women. He added that hairdressers are curling some women’s hair and plucking eyebrows; both are seen by many conservative Muslims as unpleasant, even taboo. “That’s clearly the opposite of Sharia,” he said.
The deputy director of Afghanistan’s state media also shared videos of women endorsing the ban. “Women leave salons looking like cats and monkeys,” sniffed one. “It’s non-Muslim.” Another young woman, speaking through a veil, complained that salons charge exorbitant prices for bridal makeup, “and it gets cleaned up in seconds with a washcloth.” She said that such a waste of money is not Islamic.
A beauty salon on July 8, 2023 in Kabul. Thousands of women work in the city’s beauty salons.
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Another reason could simply be opposition to working women.
Consider the deputy director of the ministry of public works, who said Afghan media agency TOLO that most Afghan men don’t want women to work. “Out of 100 percent, 95 percent of Afghans do not want their women to go to work,” said Mohammad Haqbin. He told TOLO that the male minority favors employment of women “trained by foreigners.”
Salon workers have been struggling since the Taliban overran Kabul nearly two years ago, on August 14, 2021, effectively seizing the country.
A beauty salon in Kabul on July 8. There is concern that the ban on beauty shops in the capital will be extended across Afghanistan.
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Soon after the Taliban took power, they ordered shop owners to cover up images of women’s faces – adorned with rainbow eyeshadow and false eyelashes – from their storefronts. The lavish images are a curse on the Taliban, who demand that women and girls wear black robes, including their faces. (In June, the United Nations report that Taliban officials require young girls such as fourth-graders to cover their faces on their way to school.)
Since the ban was announced, beauticians have held small protests, including at the offices of the Association of Women’s Salons. There, the female worker told TOLO news store that they fear the ban will extend to all of Afghanistan’s 12,000 beauty salons. And they say they are desperate. “Either we leave the country, or we’ll take to the streets and kill ourselves. Either they put us under an atomic bomb or execute us because we’re women,” said a female makeup artist. anonymously told the news agency.
Hashimi, a 22-year-old beauty salon owner, said she’s focused on the first option: leaving Afghanistan. She is trying to find a trafficker to take her to neighboring Pakistan, or possibly as far as Türkiye. “If they really closed these salons, we wouldn’t be here anymore,” she told NPR.
Hadid reporting from Fremantle, Australia.
