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Beauty salon ban in Afghanistan a blow to women's rights and their livelihoods

In Afghanistan, the Taliban administration's order to shutter women's beauty salons across the country comes into effect today.

60,000 women likely to lose their jobs, 12,000 beauty businesses likely to shutter

Thomson Reuters ·
A man removes curtains inside a beauty salon in Kabul, Afghanistan.
An Afghan man removes curtains from a beauty parlour in Kabul on Tuesday. Afghanistan's Taliban authorities ordered beauty salons across the country to shut effective today. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images)

In Afghanistan, the Taliban administration's order to shutter women's beauty salons comes into effect today. This ban is the latest in a series of restrictions imposed by the Taliban on women since taking control of the country two years ago during the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops.

More than 60,000 women are likely to lose their jobs, and 12,000 beauty businesses are likely to shutter, according to industry estimates, putting further strain on families and an economy already in crisis.

Setbacks

Roza Otunbayeva, the UN secretary general's special representative in Afghanistan, told Reuters the ban on beauty salons "will disproportionately impact female entrepreneurs, which is a setback for resilience, poverty reduction and economic recovery." Here, Afghan women peek through the door of a vacated beauty parlour in Kabul on Tuesday. 

Two women walk by the front entrance of a beauty salon that has been vacated in Kabul, Afghanistan.

(Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images)

A three-wheeler vehicle loaded with belongings from a beauty parlour is parked in front of the parlour in Kabul.

A three-wheeled vehicle loaded with belongings from a beauty salon parked in front of a salon in Kabul, Afghanistan.

(Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images)

Female participation in the formal workforce was around 23 per cent during the rule of Afghanistan's foreign-backed government, the International Labour Organization said. Here, an Afghan beautician removes a poster in a beauty salon in Kabul on Monday. 

A woman removes a poster of a model from the wall of a beauty salon in Kabul, Afghanistan.

(Ali Khara/Reuters)

In addition to offering the usual services, beauty salons, such as this one in Kabul, provide many Afghan women with a safe, female-only space where they can meet outside their homes and without a male chaperone.

Standing by floor-to-ceiling curtains, a woman at a beauty salon looks outside.

(Ali Khara/Reuters)

Makeup equipment is seen in the hands of an Afghan beautician at a beauty salon in Kabul.

A woman's hand holding a bunch of makeup brushes in at a salon in Kabul, Afghanistan.

(Ali Khara/Reuters)

The ban on salons, announced on July 4 by the morality ministry, said it was based on an order from the supreme spiritual leader.

An emptied beauty salon in Kabul, Afghanistan, with a woman in the back of it standing behind a glass partition.

(Ali Khara/Reuters)

Similar orders have led to the closure of high schools and universities to women and stopped many Afghan female aid staff from work — moves foreign officials say are hampering any steps toward the formal recognition of the Taliban administration.

Two chairs in front of wash basins at a beauty salon in Kabul, Afghanistan.

 (Ali Khara/Reuters)

Members of the Taliban administration say they respect women's rights in line with their interpretation of Islamic law and Afghan culture. They support the development of female-owned businesses and have allowed spaces for women at trade fairs.

"Day by day, the Taliban are trying to eliminate women from society. We are also human beings," said one makeup artist, not pictured below. 

Women in niqabs with their backs facing the camera, removing signage at a beauty salon that's closing.

(Ali Khara/Reuters)

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