Afghan Tag

In early July, the Taliban ordered the closure of beauty salons and gave salon owners given a month to shut their doors. Beauty salons were also ordered to shut when the Taliban was last in power, between 1996 and 2001, but many reopened after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. Many remained open even after US forces withdrew from the country in 2021 and the Taliban regained power. They provided women with jobs, services, and a community space to fulfill and connect with other women – spaces which are already hard to return by for Afghan women. It’s estimated that these closures will lead to a loss of around 60,000 jobs (the vast majority of that are women), cutting off their income...