Afghan Taliban bans women’s beauty parlors

Afghanistan’s Taliban are outlawing women’s beauty parlors, a government spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Following decrees banning them from work, public places, and most types of education, it is the most recent restriction on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls.

Mohammad Sidik Akif Mahajar, the Virtue and Vice Ministry’s spokesperson, declined to provide specifics about the restriction. He just validated what was said in a letter that was going around on social media.

According to the letter from the ministry, dated June 24, it contains a verbal directive from the supreme commander, Hibatullah Akhundzada. The prohibition affects all of the country’s provinces as well as the capital, Kabul, and gives salons a month to close their doors.

They must shut after that time and give a report on their closure. There are no justifications for the prohibition in the letter.

Its publication follows Akhundzada’s assertion that his administration has taken the required actions to improve the lives of Afghan women.

The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO soldiers were withdrawing, despite early assurances that their reign would be more moderate than during their previous tenure in power in the 1990s. Since then, the Taliban have enacted severe policies.

They have restricted media freedoms and banned women from public places like parks and gyms. The actions have aggravated a humanitarian catastrophe and sparked a heated international backlash, further isolating the nation at a time when its economy is collapsing.