RASC: Women’s beauty salons across Afghanistan have been closed since Tuesday, July 25 by order of the Taliban group, and thousands of women, some of whom are the sole breadwinners of their families, have lost their jobs and source of income.
It is estimated that about 12,000 women’s beauty parlors were operating throughout Afghanistan, of which 3,000 were located in Kabul alone. With this account, about 60 thousand more women in Afghanistan became unemployed from yesterday.
After taking control of Afghanistan, the Taliban group has imposed many restrictions on women, such as banning education above the sixth grade, depriving women of work, with the exception of a few health and education offices, banning women from entering amusement parks, sports halls, and public baths.
Bahara, a customer of one of the women’s beauty salons in Kabul, said: “We used to come here and spend time talking about our future. Now even this right has been taken away from us. Women are not allowed to enter the entertainment places, so what should we do? Where should we go to be happy? Where shall we gather to see each other?”
The owner of one of the women’s hairdressing salons said that she was forced to sign a letter in which it was written that she would close the beauty salon at her own will and hand over its business license to the authorities.
“It was a terrible scene—they [the Taliban] came with guns and military vehicles,” she said.
She, who did not want to be named in the report, told the media: “What can a woman do in the face of so much insistence and pressure?”
On June 21, the Ministry of “Amr Bil Maruf” of the Taliban group, according to the verbal order of Mullah Hebatullah Akhundzah, the leader of this group, informed the owners of women’s hair salons in Afghanistan to stop their activities for a month.
