The clandestine businesses – a financial lifeline for many women – have been given a month to cease operations
The Taliban have issued an order targeting underground beauty salons operating in secret across Afghanistan, warning the women running them that they have one month to stop or face arrest.
Officially, all beauty salons were closed by the Taliban in August 2023, shuttering 12,000 businesses with the loss of more than 50,000 female beautician jobs. Yet clandestine salons have continued to operate within communities across the country.
Now, the Taliban have said that they intend to root out and eliminate these underground businesses, issuing orders to community leaders and elders across the country that they must identify clandestine beauty salons and report those running them to the “vice and virtue” police.
Frestha, a 38-year-old mother of three young children, said she had been operating her beauty salon business in secret since they were banned in 2023 because she had no choice but to work and no other way of earning money.
