Taliban explains why it’s banning beauty salons

The Afghan morality ministry claims the services are un-Islamic and cause economic hardships

Eyebrow shaping, the use of other people’s hair, and make-up interferes with the ablutions required before prayers, the Taliban’s Virtue and Vice Ministry said on Thursday in justification of a controversial move to shut down women’s beauty salons across Afghanistan.

Moreover, it is customary that the cost of pre-wedding salon visits by the bride and her female family members is to be borne by the groom’s family, which causes additional economic stress, the morality ministry’s spokesman, Sadiq Akif Mahjer, argued, according to AP.

While the move has drawn criticism from human rights defenders, the Taliban claims that the government has taken all necessary steps for the “betterment” of women’s lives in Afghanistan to “provide them with a comfortable and prosperous life according to the Islamic Shariah.”

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“Under the rule of the Islamic Emirate, concrete measures have been taken to save women from many traditional oppressions, including forced marriages, and their Shariah rights have been protected,” the supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, said.

Since seizing control of Afghanistan amid the botched withdrawal of US forces in August 2021, the Islamist group has been bringing all areas of life in the country in line with its strict interpretation of Islam. The Taliban has imposed severe restrictions prohibiting girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade, barring women from various jobs and public spaces such as parks and gyms. Women are required to cover their faces in public and have a male chaperon for long trips.