Afghan women take to streets to protest Taliban's ban on beauty parlours

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Taliban's order to close down beauty parlours. As reported by AFP, the ban on beauty parlours is the latest measure imposed by the Taliban to restrict women's participation in public life. Since taking control in August 2021, the Taliban has imposed various restrictions on girls and women, including barring them from schools and universities, prohibiting them from visiting parks, funfairs, and gyms, and mandating them to cover up in public.

The recent order, issued last month, has compelled the shutdown of numerous beauty parlours across the country, which are predominantly run by women and often serve as the main source of income for households. This decision has also eliminated one of the scarce opportunities for women to socialize outside their homes. "Don't take my bread and water," read a sign carried by one of the protesters on Butcher Street, which boasts a concentration of the capital's salons.

Public demonstrations are not common in Afghanistan and are often forcefully dispersed. On Wednesday, approximately 50 women participated in a protest, catching the attention of security personnel. Subsequently, protesters shared videos and photos with journalists, depicting the use of a firehose by authorities to disperse the gathering, with the sound of shots heard in the background, AFP reported.

"Today we arranged this protest to talk and negotiate," said a salon worker, whose name has not been published by AFP for security reasons. "But today, no one came to talk to us, to listen to us. They didn't pay any attention to us and after a while, they dispersed us by aerial firing and water cannon." The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) expressed its condemnation of the dispersal of the protest.