2023-07-04 18:52:00
Afghan women in a beauty salon in Kabul: The Taliban are now asking the shops to close. (Iconic image) Image: AP
They were one of the last sanctuaries for women: now beauty salons in Afghanistan have to close within a month. For many women, this is their only source of income.
Beauty salons run by women had sprung up in many corners during the 20-year deployment of US forces in Kabul and other Afghan cities. They not only represented a way for women to earn money, but were also a protected space to meet and exchange ideas. For many Afghan households, the saloons were the only source of income.
“There was no fighting and no noise here,” said one salon worker, who asked to be called Neelab. “We feel comfortable in this place.” The beauty salon owner said she hired 25 women who were the sole breadwinners for their families. “They are all devastated (…) what are they going to do,” she said.
Women are excluded from public life
Since taking power in October 2021, they have been closing Taliban in Afghanistan, girls and women are increasingly separated from public life. They are denied entry to schools and universities, parks, fairgrounds and gyms, and are forced to cover themselves in public.
Most employees of the United Nations and non-governmental organizations are also no longer allowed to do their jobs. Thousands of women who worked for the government have been fired or are now being paid to stay at home.
more on the subject
According to a report by the UN Human Rights Council, the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan is among the worst in the world. The “serious, systematic and institutionalized discrimination once morest women and girls” is at the heart of the ideology and rule of the Taliban, it says.
UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif said: “Over the past 22 months, every aspect of women’s and girls’ lives has been restricted. They are discriminated once morest in every way.”
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