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Taliban closes womenโ€™s beauty parlours in Afghanistan

In the latest reduction of access to public spaces for Afghan women, one of the last remaining refuges they have left has been declared un-Islamic by the Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

In 2021, the world watched in horror as the Taliban, taking advantage of Americaโ€™s withdrawal from the region, seized power in Afghanistan.

Triggering concerns that this would signify the countryโ€™s return to its repressive past, one entirely absent of basic womenโ€™s rights, female citizens began to once again dread confinement indoors, deprivation of agency, and violent control measures.

This was commonplace between 1996 and 2001, a five year period that saw women forbidden from seeking employment and girls from attending school, all of them obliged to wear a full face and body covering and be accompanied by a male chaperone if they wanted to venture out of their homes.

In the time since, millions of girls have received an education and women have been granted a range of new societal opportunities.

After two decades of relative autonomy, however, these gains โ€“ touted as one of the most noteworthy humanitarian accomplishments in recent history โ€“ were elapsed, and the dreams of an entire generation of Afghan women raised alongside a hope they could eventually live within a fair democratic state were quashed before the Talibanโ€™s relentless advance.

Taliban's chilling crackdown BEGINS: Faces of women brutally defaced at  Kabul beauty salon | World | News | Express.co.uk

Today, the curtailing of their freedoms continues, with the fundamentalist groupโ€™s most recent decision to outlaw beauty parlours sparking rare protests in the capital city of Kabul.

It is the latest reduction of access to public spaces for Afghan women, who are now barred from most forms of employment as well as classrooms, gyms, and parks.

The Taliban administration has given businesses one month from July 2 to close shop, allegedly because they offer services forbidden by Islam and cause economic hardship for groomsโ€™ families during wedding festivities.

According to Afghanistanโ€™s chamber of commerce, the move will lead to the loss of 60,000 jobs โ€“ hence the demonstrations.

โ€˜It seems like the Taliban just want to wipe women out,โ€™ beautician Aqeela Azimi told The Times. โ€˜There is nothing left for us. Even lipstick is a threat.โ€™

With Afghanistan in the grip of what the UN says is the worldโ€™s biggest humanitarian crisis โ€” 28 million people needing assistance โ€” there are few options.

Beauty salons are not only the last remaining means of income for women in Afghanistan but also the only place they could gather after the Taliban closed one door after another on them.

The measures have incited a fierce uproar worldwide, increasing the countryโ€™s isolation at a time when its economy has collapsed.

โ€˜The Taliban ban on beauty parlours removes another vital space for womenโ€™s work at a time when theyโ€™re struggling to feed their families, eliminates one of the few refuges for women outside the home and further transforms the country into a cruel and extreme outlier in the world,โ€™ tweeted Rina Amiri, the US special envoy for Afghan women and human rights.

Her statement echoes the wider sentiment of the international community, which is at a loss about what to do.

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