Taliban Ban Hair and Beauty Salons in Afghanistan

The Taliban have ordered hair and beauty salons in Afghanistan to shut in the latest restriction faced by women. A Vice and Virtue Ministry spokesman told the BBC businesses had one month to comply, starting from 2 July when they were first informed of the move.

Shutting beauty salons was part of a wide range of measures imposed by the Taliban when they were last in power between 1996 and 2001. But they reopened in the years after the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Beauty salons remained open even after the Taliban retook power two years ago following the withdrawal of US forces. But shop windows were often covered up and images of women outside salons were spray painted to hide their faces.

Taliban attack on women’s freedoms

Women’s freedoms have steadily shrunk since the Taliban seized power in 2021. They have barred teenage girls and women from classrooms, gyms and parks, and most recently even banned them from working for the United Nations.

The Taliban have also decreed that women should be dressed in a way that only reveals their eyes, and must be accompanied by a male relative if they are traveling more than 72km (48 miles).

In September 2021, the Taliban ordered primary schools to reopen for both sexes and announced plans to reopen secondary schools for male students, without committing to do the same for female students.

While the Taliban stated that female college students will be able to resume higher education provided that they are segregated from male students (and professors, when possible), The Guardian noted that “if the high schools do not reopen for girls, the commitments to allow university education would become meaningless once the current cohort of students graduated.”

Higher Education Minister Abdul Baqi Haqqani said that female university students will be required to observe proper hijab, but did not specify if this required covering the face.

Kabul University reopened in February 2022, with female students attending in the morning and males in the afternoon. Other than the closure of the music department, few changes to the curriculum were reported. Female students were officially required to wear an abaya and a hijab to attend, although some wore a shawl instead.

In March 2022, the Taliban abruptly halted plans to allow girls to resume secondary school education even when separated from males. At the time, The Washington Post reported that apart from university students, “sixth is now the highest grade girls may attend”. The Afghan Ministry of Education cited the lack of an acceptable design for female student uniforms.

On December 20, 2022, in violation of their prior promises, the Taliban banned female students from attending higher education institutions with immediate effect.

The following day, December 21, 2022, the Taliban instituted a ban on all education for all girls and women around the country alongside a ban on female staff in schools, including teaching professions. Teaching was one of the last few remaining professions open to women.

Related: The Greek Teacher Who Was Kidnapped by the Taliban