Taliban orders all beauty salons in Afghanistan to close

From The Telegraph

The Taliban has ordered all beauty salons to close in a further reduction of women’s freedoms in Afghanistan.

“The deadline for the closing of beauty parlours for women is one month,” Mohammad Sadiq Akif, a spokesman for the ministry for the prevention of vice and propagation of virtue, said on Tuesday.

Violators of the edict will face “legal action”, the widely-feared ministry warned in an official notice.

Beauty salons sprung up in Kabul and other Afghan cities in the months after the Taliban was toppled by a US-led invasion in late 2001. Many remained open after the group returned to power two years ago, though operating clandestinely, with their signs and windows covered up.

“The men are jobless. When men cannot take care of their families, the women are forced to work in a beauty salon to find a loaf of bread. If they are banned there, what can we do?” an unnamed makeup artist told Afghanistan’s TOLO news channel.

The Taliban says it respects women’s rights in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic law and Afghan customs.