The Taliban government announced Tuesday that it has ordered the closure of beauty salons within a month in Afghanistan, a new measure aimed at keeping women ever further away from public life.

This decision will cause the disappearance of thousands of businesses run by women, whose families often have no other sources of income, and of one of the last areas of freedom and socialization still remaining for Afghan women.

“I think it would be better if women didn’t exist at all in this society,” ironically noted the manager of a Kabul salon who requested anonymity.

“I’m saying it now: I wish we didn’t exist. I wish we weren’t born in Afghanistan, or that we weren’t from Afghanistan,” she told AFP.

Since their return to power in August 2021, the Taliban have excluded women from most secondary schools, universities and public administrations. They also very broadly prohibited them from working with the UN and international NGOs.

Women are also prohibited from entering parks, gardens, sports halls and public baths, traveling without being accompanied by a male relative and must cover themselves fully when leaving their homes.

Mohammad Sadeq Akif Muhajir, spokesman for the Ministry of Vice Prevention and Promotion of Virtue, confirmed to AFP on Tuesday the closure of beauty salons, which had been mentioned for several days on social networks.

He did not justify this decision. “Once they have been closed, we will report the reason to the media,” he said.

One month has been granted to the salons to close, so that they can sell their stock without experiencing any losses.

According to a written copy of the decree seen by AFP, the decision “is based on a verbal instruction from the supreme leader” of Afghanistan, Hibatullah Akhundzada.

Beauty salons had proliferated in Kabul and major Afghan cities during the 20-year occupation by US and NATO forces before the Taliban returned to power.

They were considered safe places for women to meet in the absence of men, and had also enabled many women to set up their own businesses.

“The women used to chat, gossip. We didn’t fight here, there was no noise,” said a salon employee, who asked to be called Neelab.

“When we see happy and energetic faces, it perks us up too. The living room has a very important role: this place makes us feel good,” she added.

Another manager reported employing 25 women, all of whom are breadwinners. “All are devastated (…) What should they do (now)”, she pointed, also on condition of anonymity.

In a report presented last week to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Richard Bennett, special rapporteur for Afghanistan, said that the situation of women and girls in the country “was one of the worst in the world”.

The “serious, systematic and institutionalized discrimination against women and girls is at the heart of the ideology and the power of the Taliban”, assured Mr. Bennett.

Hibatullah Akhundzada claimed in late June that women living in the country had been rescued from “oppression” by the Taliban government and that their status as “free and dignified human beings” had been restored.

The supreme leader, whose public appearances are very rare and who manages the country by decree from Kandahar (South), cradle of the Taliban, explained that everything was done to guarantee women “a comfortable and prosperous life in accordance with Sharia” (Islamic law).

Raha (not her real name), who was a student before she was banned from college last year, was visiting a salon on Tuesday to prepare for an engagement party.

“It was the last place women could make a living and they want to take that away as well,” she said. “That’s a question for all of us: why are they doing this? For what reason?”

04/07/2023 15:24:21 – Kabul (AFP) © 2023 AFP