The Taliban has defended its ban on women beauty salons across Afghanistan by invoking the Sharia and economic concerns.
The group’s spokesperson for the the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Mohammad Saidiq Akif, in video posted on Twitter on Thursday said that hair extensions and eyebrow plucking were against the Sharia.
“There, they were extending hair and plucking eyebrow, which are contradictory with the Sharia,” Akif said. In Islam, he said, it is not permitted to add someone else’s hair on another person fro cosmetic reasons, he argued.
He further argued that “Women who pick their hair have been cursed in the Hadith”. He said that beauty salons were places where “women were being made up, which invalided their ablution (wudu).
The Taliban has faced widespread condemnations for adding one more edict to the list of over fifty restrictions it has imposed on women since returning to power in August 2021.
