Dozens of home beauty salons were raided and shut down in Kabul.

For several days now, Taliban militants have been conducting home raids on beauty salons in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Security forces are breaking into these homes, confiscating equipment, and forcing business owners to sign pledges to close their businesses. Several female cosmetologists told Amu.tv journalists about this, Fergana.ru reports.

They clarified that in 2023, the Taliban banned beauty salons for women, believing that such establishments were unconforming to Islamic norms. After this, entrepreneurs operating in this sector began operating clandestinely. Many set up a room in their home where they offered their services.

Now the Taliban have targeted illegal salons and hair salons. According to eyewitnesses, during raids, militants are unkind to women, insulting them, checking their mobile phones, and threatening to arrest the owners if they continue operating.

"They came to my home and wouldn't even let me open the room I used as a salon. They forced me to take down the sign and told me that my male relatives had to report to the district police station," a Kabul resident said of the Taliban raid.

Human rights activists reacted extremely negatively to the actions of the Afghan authorities. They believe the Taliban is once again punishing women who are simply trying to survive.

Incidentally, according to local sources, the closure of dozens of beauty salons has left approximately 60,000 city women without jobs. Many of them were the sole breadwinners in their families.

Even before the raids began, reports surfaced that city officials and police were offering salon owners the chance to keep their businesses. In exchange, they demanded bribes ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 Afghanis (US$140 to $1,400). However, according to Kabul residents, these payments often proved futile, as representatives of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice would shut down the businesses anyway and sometimes even arrest the entrepreneurs.

Moreover, as residents of the capital report, sometimes the Taliban, instead of bribes, make "immoral offers" to salon owners, promising that if they agree, the hairdressing or beauty salon will continue to operate, albeit underground.

Official representatives of the radical movement have not yet commented on the raids in Kabul.

As a reminder, news of the decision to close beauty salons in Afghanistan first appeared in the media in early 2023. The Taliban initially dismissed the news as untrue. However, businesses subsequently began closing, and the ban extended to include services in shopping malls.

Since coming to power in 2021, the Taliban has imposed numerous restrictions that, according to the movement, are in line with Islamic values. Specifically, girls over 12 are banned from attending school, and women are prohibited from playing sports, walking in parks, or generally appearing in public without a male escort. Last year, Afghan women were banned from going outside without a hijab, from speaking in public, even with other women, from praying, or from reading the Quran aloud.