Beauticians have responded to the Taliban’s ban on beauty salons by saying that the Taliban “lock-up people’s lives”.
Masooma Rahimi is a working beautician and the head of the beauty union in Herat province. She supports her husband and four children on a single salary as her husband is unable to work due to illness and old age.
She told Rukhshana Media that instead of banning operations, the Taliban should find a way to allow beauticians to support their families and Afghanistan’s economy.
On Tuesday, Mrs. Rahimi met with the Vice and Virtue department in Herat province and was told that based on the guidance of Mullah Hebatullah Akhundzada, the beauty union should be dissolved, and all beauty salons closed.
“I told all the members of the union that no one has the right to close their shops. When the Taliban come to the door of your shop, bring all your family members and tell them to kill all of them. Relieve us from the suffering of the family and then close the salons.” she said.
“We work hard from morning until dusk, we endure good and bad gossip to find a bite of halal bread,” she added.
Mrs. Rahimi is confused by the Taliban’s intentions.
“During Tuesday’s meeting, I told Vice and Virtue representatives that ‘we are neither your supporters, nor are we against you, we are not taking up arms against you, nor do we have that capability,” she said. “We don’t go against you but we don’t have happy memories of you.”
According to Rahimi, the officials of the Taliban administration told her to close the beauty salons and that God would provide food.
Meanwhile, UNAMA wrote on its Facebook page that the restriction will have negative effects on the economy and contradicts the Taliban’s previous promise to support women’s entrepreneurship.
The organization say they are in contact with Taliban officials and have asked them to cancel the ban.
Samira Hamidi, activist, and campaigner at Amnesty International, said in a tweet that the Taliban continue to suppress women’s rights and justify it under the title of Islamic law.
She says that women’s beauty salons are women-only spaces and banning their activities confirms that the Taliban see women as their enemy.
Ms. Hamidi added that she is afraid of the day when women will not be allowed to go to hospital.
The Taliban has ordered beauty salons to close by July 25.
