As I stepped into my native magnificence salon right here in England to have my nails achieved forward of my brother’s wedding ceremony, my cellphone pinged.
It was a catch-up message from a 23-year-old Afghan lady I’ve stayed in contact with since we met in Kabul final yr.
The irony of the timing of her message wasn’t misplaced on me.
I had been excited about her and the opposite younger girls 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 is all just an excuse,” she wrote, “they just want to destroy us, either to be their slaves like their mothers, or be killed.”
When we first met in August 2022, one yr after the Taliban’s takeover, she was already afraid of what would come. So afraid that she did not need her identify or face revealed – not then and never now.
She and different girls we spoke to likened their lives to “being in prison” nearly day by 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 may catch a break was inside their magnificence salons.
They have been one other world altogether.
When I used to be working in Kabul final yr, I visited certainly one of these salons together with a feminine journalist buddy of mine. No males are allowed inside.
We wished to see whether or not the salons have been nonetheless working as traditional, and we truly simply wished to be in an area the place girls aren’t judged or vilified only for being a lady.
Mostly darkish, thick, ‘inoffensive’ curtains separated the salons from the streets – although some went for bold-coloured curtains, and I appreciated that, it felt like a small act of rebel.
Painted nails and thin denims
Once girls entered these curtains, for a second they have been free.
They have been free to take off their black abayas and niqabs and retailer them in a cabinet and as a substitute stroll round in skinny denims and a ‘good prime’.
They have been free to have their nails painted in brilliant yellows, oranges, and pinks on the toes they are not supposed to indicate.
And they have been free to say something they wished to say whereas they chatted away and exchanged information as their hair was being lower, colored, and blow-dried.
One group of younger girls have been gathered in a nook of the two-storey salon preparing for a household wedding ceremony.
They have been sporting conventional, vibrant Kuchi attire and ornate jewelry and headwear, with sparkly excessive heels.
They regarded gorgeous, however they could not present their faces as a result of they did not wish to get in bother.
The salon’s proprietor, a feisty lady filled with confidence and constructive power, was joyful to speak as she managed her employees and dozens of shoppers.
She insisted she did not wish to cowl her face for the interview, she wished to talk overtly, although she did not need her or her salon’s identify revealed – simply in case.
At the time, she talked concerning the tense relationship between her salon and the morality police.
“The Taliban holds all the power, they could close my business at any time,” she mentioned matter-of-factly. But 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 accurately identified that not permitting girls 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 revealed, however I’ve but to make contact.
For now, I can solely assume the salon we stepped into has now been shut down.
Every day since overseas troops left Afghanistan, life has turn out to be worse and worse for ladies 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 – should not used to not having their freedoms.
‘I simply wish to stay’
Last month, the United Nations revealed a report detailing simply how a lot these freedoms have been curbed.
“In Afghanistan today, girls and women are denied education beyond primary level, banned from working outside the home in most sectors, prohibited from accessing public baths, parks, and gyms, and moving freely around the country,” the report said.
It discovered that the Taliban has “severely restricted the rights of women and girls and suffocated every dimension of their lives”.
And that’s what number of girls really feel: suffocated and invisible.
I nonetheless typically obtain messages like “nobody hears us”, “I need to get out of this scary and dangerous place,” and “I just want to live”.
There are clear divisions throughout the Taliban, we discovered that after we have been final in Afghanistan.
The youthful technology of management realise that in the event that they wish to be allowed again on the worldwide desk they must give girls and women their rights again.
But it could seem from the most recent order that the outdated guard are nonetheless holding sway.
It might 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 protected havens is one other large blow.
Source: information.sky.com”