Mullah Hibatullah Akhunzada, the Taliban supreme leader, has imposed a ban on all women beauty salons across Afghanistan.
In a letter, seen by KabulNow, the Taliban Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has asked the Kabul Municipality to implement the order of the Taliban leader across Kabul while provincial offices have been commanded to carry out the ban in other provinces.
Beauty salons must be closed down by 24 July the letter says.
After the due date, the ban will be executed with no exceptions, the letter added.
Beauty salons are a source of income for women and girls to support their families, but the business has dramatically declined since the Taliban takeover in August 2021 for fears of retaliation and severe restrictions by the group. Now, the new ban will deprive hundreds of female beauticians of employment.
Since their takeover in August 2021, the Taliban have imposed at least 50 edicts against women and girls aimed at banning girls’ education beyond the sixth grade, barring women’s access to higher education and employment, including working for UN agencies, forbidding women from public spaces such as restaurants, gyms, and parks, curtailing women’s rights to peaceful assembly and political and civil participation, and imposing other limitations on women’s freedoms.
Human rights reports have warned that the repressive Taliban rules and systematic gender discrimination against women and girls could account for crimes against humanity.
