Taliban Imposes Ban on Women’s Beauty Salons in Afghanistan

The Taliban administration has issued a prohibition on women’s beauty salons in Afghanistan, announced a government representative on Tuesday.

This move is the most recent restriction affecting the liberties and rights of Afghan women and girls, coming after mandates that exclude them from education, public areas, and the majority of employment opportunities.

Mohammad Sidik Akif Mahajar, a spokesperson for the Taliban-controlled Virtue and Vice Ministry, confirmed the ban’s implementation but refrained from providing specific details. His confirmation aligned with the contents of a letter circulating on social media platforms.

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Dated June 24, the ministry’s letter states that the ban, which applies to the capital, Kabul, and all provinces, follows a verbal directive from the supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. Beauty salons across the country have a one-month window to discontinue their operations. Following this, they are required to close and report their closure. No specific reasons for the ban were provided in the letter.

This announcement followed closely on the heels of Akhundzada’s claim of taking necessary steps to enhance the lives of women in Afghanistan.

Human and women’s rights activists on social media have criticized the move.

On Tuesday, the United Nations also expressed its commitment to liaising with the Afghan authorities in an effort to overturn the beauty salon ban. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, took to Twitter to urge the Taliban to retract the order.

“The new limitations on women’s rights will have a detrimental effect on the economy and contradict the stated support for women’s entrepreneurship,” UNAMA stated.

A beauty salon proprietor, who has been the sole provider for her family since her husband’s death in a 2017 car bombing, spoke earlier. She chose to remain anonymous and did not reveal her salon’s name due to fears of retaliation.

Her Kabul salon typically caters to between eight and twelve women each day.

“The Taliban are increasingly placing restrictions on women,” she told The Big Big News. “Why are only women targeted? Are we not human? Don’t we have the right to work or live?”

Despite their initial assurances of a more lenient rule compared to their previous reign in the 1990s, the Taliban have enacted stringent measures since taking control of Afghanistan in August 2021 amid the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces.

In addition to barring women from public spaces such as parks and gyms, they have also clamped down on media freedoms. These actions have incited international outcry, heightened the country’s isolation during an economic collapse, and aggravated a humanitarian crisis.

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More about Taliban’s ban on women’s beauty salons

• Taliban’s treatment of women and girls
• UNAMA’s stance on the women’s rights in Afghanistan
• The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan
• The status of women’s rights under the Taliban
• Taliban’s restrictions on media freedoms
• The economic collapse in Afghanistan