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Hair and beauty salons across Afghanistan will close in the coming weeks on the Taliban’s orders. Their closure will lead to the loss of an estimated 60,000 jobs.
Salons had been allowed to keep operating since the Taliban retook power two years ago, but it reversed its position last month.
The decision further restricts spaces open to Afghan women, who are already barred from classrooms, gyms and parks.
“The owner got a big shock and started to cry. She is the breadwinner for her family,” the mother of two said. “I couldn’t even look at the mirror when my eyebrow was being done. Everyone was in tears. There was silence.”
Zarmina lives in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban’s conservative citadel where the supreme leader resides.
She says it’s common here for men to ban their daughters from wearing make-up or going for a beauty treatment.
“Most women walk around in a burqa or hijab here. We have accepted it as part of our culture.”
Zarmina was married at 16. She says a chat at the beautician was enough to give her a rare sense of freedom.
“I wasn’t allowed to leave my house on my own, but I managed to persuade my husband, and was allowed to visit the beauty salon two or three times a year.” She used to go to the salon with a woman from her neighbourhood, developing a deep friendship with one of its workers.
“In the past, women used to talk about ways to influence their husbands. Some were open about their insecurities.”
But the economic crisis had gradually intruded into their lives after the Taliban retook power in August 2021 following the withdrawal of US forces from the country.
Women’s freedoms have steadily shrunk since then.
“Now women only talk about unemployment, discrimination and poverty,” Zarmina says.
BBC
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