‘In tears’: Huge blow for nation’s women

Hair and beauty salons across Afghanistan will close in the coming weeks on the Taliban’s orders, as the latest in a series of sexist crackdowns since the fundamentalist regime regained control of the country in 2021.

Women’s access to public spaces has been drastically reduced in the two years since the Taliban took power. Women are now barred from classrooms, gyms and parks.

This week, three brave young women spoke out to share how the beauty salon ban will impact them.

Mum-of-two Zarmina*, 22, said she was in a beauty salon having her hair dyed when news of the closures came through.

“The owner got a big shock and started to cry. She is the breadwinner for her family,” Zarmina told the BBC.

“I couldn’t even look at the mirror when my eyebrow was being done. Everyone was in tears. There was silence.”

Zarmina, who was married at 16, lives in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban’s conservative stronghold where the supreme leader resides.

She says it’s common there for men to ban their daughters from wearing make-up or go for beauty treatments.

“Most women walk around in a burqa or hijab here. We have accepted it as part of our culture,” she explained.

The young mum said a trip to the beautician gave her a rare taste 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 said.

“In the past, women used to talk about ways to influence their husbands. Some were open about their insecurities. Now women only talk about unemployment, discrimination and poverty.”

Somaya*, 27, from the northwest city of Mazar-i-Sharif, is a burns victim. She told the publication the beauty salon helped her to cope with her missing eyebrows and eyelashes after a heater in her room exploded, radically changing the appearance of her face.

“I couldn’t bear to look at my face. I looked ugly,” she said.

“I thought everyone was looking at me and laughing at me because my eyebrows were gone. I didn’t go out for a couple of months. I cried a lot during that time.”

Somaya said she went to the beauty salon and had micro-blading, a semipermanent form of cosmetic tattooing usually used to make one’s eyebrows appear thicker.

“It made me look much better,” she said.

“When I looked at my eyebrows, I started to cry. They are tears of joy. The beauty salon gave me my life back.

“For us, salons are more than places to do your make-up. It helped us hide our sorrows. It gave us energy and hope.”

A third woman, Madina*, said trips to the salon helped to keep her marriage fresh.

Madina, 22, covers her head with a scarf when she leaves home, only showing her hair to her husband and female members of her family.

“My husband really loves to see my hair in different colours and cut in different styles,” she said.

“He always takes me to the beauty salon and waits patiently at the door.

“He compliments my looks when I walk out, which makes me feel good.”

Madina said the Taliban’s reforms meant fear was rife in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, where she lives.

“Women employees in the salon no longer wear skirts or jeans, they’re all in hijabs,” she said.

“No-one knows who is a Taliban supporter and no-one wants to say anything about politics.”

Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban government has barred women and girls from high schools and universities, banned them from parks, funfairs and gyms and ordered them to cover up in public.

Women have mostly been barred from working for the United Nations and non-government organisations, and thousands have been sacked from government jobs or are being paid to stay at home.

The order issued last month forces the closure of thousands of beauty salons run by women — often the only source of income for their households — and outlaws one of the few remaining opportunities for women to socialise away from home.

The ban sparked a small protest of about 50 women in Kabul. Footage showed authorities using fire hoses and shooting projectiles into the air to disperse the activists.

“Don’t take my bread and water,” read a sign carried by one of the protesters.

*All names have been changed. The women pictured are not those who were interviewed.

Originally published as ‘Started to cry’: Huge blow for Afghanistan’s women