As I stepped into my native magnificence salon right here in England to have my nails finished forward of my brother’s wedding ceremony, my telephone pinged.
It was a catch-up message from a 23-year-old Afghan girl I’ve stayed in contact with since we met in Kabul final 12 months.
The irony of the timing of her message wasn’t misplaced on me.
I had been fascinated about her and the opposite younger ladies from Afghanistan I’ve met in the previous few years, when the Taliban ordered all magnificence salons in Afghanistan to be shut.
« Salons, gyms, universities, baths, it’s all simply an excuse, » she wrote, « they only need to destroy us, both to be their slaves like their moms, or be killed. »
After we first met in August 2022, one 12 months after the Taliban’s takeover, she was already afraid of what would come. So afraid that she did not need her title or face printed – not then and never now.
She and different ladies we spoke to likened their lives to « being in jail » virtually day-after-day, being informed what to put on, what to say, and what to do by the Taliban’s ‘morality police’.
The one place, although, all of them knew they might catch a break was inside their magnificence salons.
They had been one other world altogether.
Once I was working in Kabul final 12 months, I visited certainly one of these salons together with a feminine journalist pal of mine. No males are allowed inside.
We wished to see whether or not the salons had been nonetheless working as traditional, and we truly simply wished to be in an area the place ladies aren’t judged or vilified only for being a lady.
Largely darkish, thick, ‘inoffensive’ curtains separated the salons from the streets – although some went for bold-coloured curtains, and I preferred that, it felt like a small act of rebel.
Painted nails and thin denims
As soon as ladies entered these curtains, for a second they had been free.
They had been free to take off their black abayas and niqabs and retailer them in a cabinet and as an alternative stroll round in skinny denims and a ‘good high’.
They had been free to have their nails painted in vibrant yellows, oranges, and pinks on the toes they don’t seem to be supposed to point out.
They usually had been free to say something they wished to say whereas they chatted away and exchanged information as their hair was being reduce, colored, and blow-dried.
One group of younger ladies had been gathered in a nook of the two-storey salon preparing for a household wedding ceremony.
They had been carrying conventional, vibrant Kuchi clothes and ornate jewelry and headwear, with sparkly excessive heels.
They appeared beautiful, however they could not present their faces as a result of they did not need to get in bother.
The salon’s proprietor, a feisty girl filled with confidence and constructive vitality, was comfortable to speak as she managed her employees and dozens of purchasers.
She insisted she did not need to cowl her face for the interview, she wished to talk overtly, although she did not need her or her salon’s title printed – simply in case.
On the time, she talked in regards to the tense relationship between her salon and the morality police.
« The Taliban holds all the ability, they might shut my enterprise at any time, » she mentioned matter-of-factly. However she hoped it would not come to that.
The salon proprietor is the principle breadwinner for her household and mentioned it did not make sense to close salons as a result of they function behind closed doorways and are an important a part of the economic system.
She appropriately identified that not permitting ladies to complete their increased training, run companies, or progress in society would have a profound long-term impression on the economic system.
I’ve tried to get in contact together with her since this newest edict was printed, however I’ve but to make contact.
For now, I can solely assume the salon we stepped into has now been shut down.
On daily basis since overseas troops left Afghanistan, life has develop into worse and worse for girls and women.
The youthful technology, a lot of whom solely knew life beneath the 20-year NATO command, are a tech-savvy group who – in Kabul particularly – will not be used to not having their freedoms.
‘I simply need to stay’
Final month, the United Nations printed a report detailing simply how a lot these freedoms have been curbed.
« In Afghanistan right this moment, women and girls are denied training past major stage, banned from working outdoors the house in most sectors, prohibited from accessing public baths, parks, and gymnasiums, and shifting freely across the nation, » the report acknowledged.
It discovered that the Taliban has « severely restricted the rights of girls and women and suffocated each dimension of their lives ».
And that’s what number of ladies really feel: suffocated and invisible.
I nonetheless typically obtain messages like « no person hears us », « I have to get out of this scary and harmful place, » and « I simply need to stay ».
There are clear divisions inside the Taliban, we discovered that once we had been final in Afghanistan.
The youthful technology of management realise that in the event that they need to be allowed again on the worldwide desk they must give ladies and women their rights again.
However it will seem from the most recent order that the previous guard are nonetheless holding sway.
It could look like frippery to mourn the lack of magnificence salons, however when each different proper and freedom has already been taken away, the lack of certainly one of your final remaining secure havens is one other big blow.
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