Kabul: Afghanistan's women's beauty salons are forbidden by the Taliban, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.

Following decrees banning them from employment, public places, and most forms of education, it is the most recent restriction on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls.

Mohammad Sidik Akif Mahajar, the Virtue and Vice Ministry's spokesman, declined to provide specifics about the ban. He only confirmed what was written in a letter that was going around on social media.

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According to the letter from the ministry, dated June 24, it contains a verbal directive from the supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. The ban affects all of the country's provinces as well as the capital, Kabul, and gives salons a month to close their doors. They must close after that time and submit a report on their closure. There are no justifications for the ban in the letter.

Its release follows Akhundzada's assertion that his government has taken the necessary actions to improve the lives of Afghan women.

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One owner of a beauty parlour claimed that after her husband was killed in a car bombing in 2017, she was the family's sole provider. For fear of retaliation, she didn't want her name or her salon mentioned.

Every day, she said, between eight and twelve women visit her salon in Kabul.
"They (the Taliban) are restricting women day by day," she told The Associated Press. "Why do they only want to attract women? Are we not human? Do we not have the right to live and work?

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The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO forces were withdrawing, despite initial assurances that their rule would be more moderate than during their previous tenure in power in the 1990s. Since then, the Taliban have enacted harsh policies.

They have restricted media freedoms and banned women from public places like parks and gyms. The actions have worsened a humanitarian crisis and sparked a fierce international uproar, further isolating the nation at a time when its economy is collapsing.