BAHARİN LEHİB

Kabul- Since the takeover in August 2021, the Taliban have intensified the repression on women and girls. At the beginning of July, Mullah Hibatullah Akhunzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, announced a ban on all women’s hair and beauty salons across Afghanistan.

Several days ago, the Taliban announced on social media that the owners of hair and beauty salons have to collect their equipment and close their salon until August 4.

‘I will not bow to the Taliban’

This ban will leave many women unemployed. Afghan women running hair and beauty salons have been looking for new ways to keep working. S.S. is the owner of a beauty salon in Kabul. She is the only breadwinner for her family. She has been taking care of her brothers and sisters since her father died last year.

“I did not believe that the hair and beauty salons would be closed down until an officer of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice came to my beauty salon. He told me that I had to collect all the equipment and close my salon in a month,” she told NuJINHA.

S.S. also told us that the ban would leave dozens of women unemployed. “Dozens of women working in hair and beauty salons will lose their jobs and their only source of livelihood. Many owners of hair and beauty salons have been looking for new ways to keep working and earn a living for their families. I have been looking for a safe place to work. I will not bow to the Taliban.”