Taliban shut beauty salons in latest blow to Afghan women's freedoms

Salons had remained open since the group's takeover, providing a rare outing and jobs for women

An Afghan woman enters a beauty salon where the adverts have been defaced, in Kabul. Reuters

The Taliban have ordered beauty salons to close across Afghanistan in a further curb on women's freedoms.

All salons must be closed within the next month, Mohammad Sadiq Akif, a representative of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue the Prevention of Vice, said on Tuesday.

The move is the latest of many barring women from public life since the Taliban returned to power almost two years ago.

Women are largely confined to their homes, barred from parks, schools, and universities. Gyms are also off-limits.

Some beauty salons have remained open since 2021, providing women with crucial employment, but many have had to disguise their shopfronts to avoid being targeted by the Taliban.

“The men are jobless. When men cannot take care of their families, the women are forced to work in a beauty salon to find a loaf of bread. If they are banned there, what can we do?” Raihan Mubariz, a make-up artist, told Afghanistan's TOLO news.

“What can we do? We should starve to death, what should we do? You want us to die,” said another.

In April, Afghan women were also barred from working in NGOs and United Nations agencies, a move that has forced the UN to reconsider its presence in the country.

It said the Taliban's rules have forced the organisation to make an “appalling decision” between staying to support Afghans and abiding by principles it is “duty-bound to uphold”.

Afghanistan remains the world's least peaceful country, according to the World Peace Index released last week, and has been labelled the most repressive country for women and girls by the UN.

Despite fears of arrest and mistreatment, many women have taken to the streets to protest against the Taliban rulings that deprive them of their basic rights, including education.

More than 1,000 civilians have been killed in explosions and violence since the hardline group took power in August 2021, including in suspected Taliban attacks on the few schools still open to girls.

ISIS has also staged deadly attacks, including on mosques and security compounds used by the Taliban.