Dozens of Afghan women were dispersed with water hoses during a demonstration in Kabul on Wednesday against the Taliban authorities’ decision to close beauty salons, a new restriction on their freedom.
• Also read: Afghanistan: Taliban authorities order beauty salons to close
• Also read: Afghanistan’s top leader says women have been saved “from oppression” by the Taliban
Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban have barred women from most secondary schools, universities and public administrations, banned them from parks, gardens, gymnasiums and public baths, and required them to cover themselves fully when leaving houses.
The decision to close beauty salons, promulgated in a decree published in late June, will result in the disappearance of thousands of women-run businesses, whose families often have no other sources of income, and signify one of the last spaces of freedom and socialization for Afghan women.
“Don’t take my bread and water from me,” read a sign held up by one of the protesters on Butcher Street, a street in the capital that’s home to many beauty salons.
Demonstrations are rare in Afghanistan and are usually violently broken up. But as of Wednesday, around fifty women were still taking part, which quickly drew the attention of security services.
AFP
Photos and videos shared by protesters with the press show police using fire hoses to disperse the protesters.
The Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue had confirmed the measure a few days after the decree was promulgated, specifying that the salons would have a month to close in order to have time to sell their stocks.
He justified the closure by saying that salons spend excessive sums on weddings, which is too much of a burden for poor families, and that some of the treatments offered do not comply with Islamic law.
Too much makeup on the face prevents women from washing properly before prayer, the ministry said, and false eyelashes and braids are also banned.
A written copy of the decree obtained by AFP said the decision was “based on verbal direction from the supreme leader” of Afghanistan, Hibatullah Akhundzada.
AFP
During the 20-year occupation by US and NATO forces, before the Taliban returned to power, beauty salons in Kabul and major Afghan cities had proliferated.
They were considered safe meeting places for women in the absence of men and had also enabled many women to start their own businesses.