Kabul: In the latest shrinking of access to public places for Afghan women, the Taliban administration has ordered beauty salons to close within a month, the morality ministry said.
“The deadline for the closing of beauty parlours for women is one month,” Mohammad Sadiq Akif, a spokesperson for the ministry for the prevention of vice and propagation of virtue, said, referring to a ministry notice. Foreign governments and UN officials have condemned growing restrictions on women since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 after defeating a US-backed government as foreign forces withdrew.
Last year, the administration closed most girls’ high schools, barred women from university and stopped many female Afghan aid staff from working. Many public places including bathhouses, gyms and parks have been closed to women. Beauty salons sprung up in Kabul and other Afghan cities in the months after the Taliban were driven from power in late 2001, weeks after the September 11 attacks on the US. Many remained open after the Taliban returned to power two years ago, providing some women with jobs and their customers with their services.