Dozens of Afghan women protested a ban on beauty salons on Wednesday after the Taliban ordered their closure across the country. Security forces used fire hoses, tasers and fired their weapons into the air to break up the protest.
The Taliban said earlier this month they were giving all salons in Afghanistan a month to wind down their businesses and close shop, raising concerns among international officials worried about the impact on female business owners. The Taliban say they are banning the salons allegedly because they offer services forbidden by Islam and cause economic hardship to the families of bride and groom during wedding celebrations.
The ruling comes from Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, the latest restriction on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls, following edicts banning them from education, public spaces and most forms of employment.
In a rare sign of public opposition to the Taliban’s orders, dozens of beauticians and makeup artists gathered in the capital Kabul to protest the ban.
“We are here for justice,” said a protester who identified herself as Farzana. “We want work, food and freedom.”
The Taliban sprayed the women with water and fired their rifles into the air to disperse the gathering.
Farzana later said the women were on their way to the UN mission in Afghanistan, and urged protesters to stick together.
A protester told The Associated Press that the demonstration began around 10 a.m. in the capital’s Shar-e-Naw area. He did not want to give his name for fear of reprisals.
“The aim of our demonstration was that they (the Taliban) should reconsider and reverse the decision to close the beauty salons because it is about our lives,” he said. “All of us, between 50 and 60 women, participated. Our slogan was work, bread and freedom”.
The protest continued until the early afternoon, when the Taliban arrived to break up the crowd, he said. They used tasers on the protesters.
“They put two or three of our friends in the car and took them away,” he said.
A beauty salon on July 8, 2023 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Nava Jamshidi/Getty Images
No one from the Taliban-led government was immediately available to comment on the protest.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan, known as UNAMA, criticized the Taliban’s use of force to disperse the protesters.
“Reports of the forceful suppression of a peaceful protest by women against the ban on beauty salons, the latest denial of women’s rights in #Afghanistan, are deeply troubling,” the mission said. UN in a tweet. “Afghans have the right to express opinions without violence. The de facto authorities must maintain it.”
Meanwhile, the Taliban-led Ministry of Vice and Virtue, which had announced a ban on beauty salons in early July, said on Wednesday it was destroying goods and instruments used for the “promotion of music and corruption” and post photos of bonfires on Twitter.
“These materials, which were collected from immoral programs in Kabul and some provinces over the past few months, and which led to the loss of our youth and the deterioration of society, were destroyed according to Sharia (Islamic law),” the ministry tweeted.
