KABUL-On Wednesday, security personnel used firehoses and live ammunition to disperse hundreds of Afghan women who were protesting in Kabul over the Taliban's latest attempt to exclude them from society by ordering the closure of beauty salons.
Since taking control in August 2021, the Taliban administration has forbidden girls and women from attending high schools and universities, as well as parks, amusement parks, and gyms. They have also issued orders for them to cover up in public. The decree, which was issued last month, forbids one of the few remaining ways for women to socialise outside of the home and mandates the closure of hundreds of beauty salons nationally managed by women.
These salons are frequently the only source of income for homes. One of the demonstrators held a banner that read, "Don't take my bread and water," on Butcher Street, which is home to many of the capital's salons.
Public demonstrations are uncommon in Afghanistan and are frequently put down by force, but AFP reported that on Wednesday, some 50 women participated in the rally, which swiftly caught the attention of security officers. Later, while shots could be heard in the background, protesters exchanged footage and pictures with media that showed police using a firehose to scatter them. Because of security concerns, the salon employee's name has been withheld by AFP. "Today we organised this protest to talk and negotiate," the person added. But nobody came to chat to us or listen to us today. They ignored us, and after a while they used water cannons and aircraft fire to scatter us.
The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice granted salons a month to close down at the end of June, claiming that this would give them time to exhaust their stock. It claimed that it issued the ban because some salon procedures violated Islamic law and that lavish sums spent on makeovers made life difficult for low-income households.
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