Just a day after banning beauty salons in Afghanistan, Taliban issued a reason for the same on Friday. It said that the salons offered services forbidden by Islam and also cause economic hardships for grooms’ families during wedding festivities. 

This is the latest addition to a long list of curbs imposed by the Taliban government on the freedom of girls and women since coming back to power in 2021. Earlier, the authorities have now prohibited women from attending the Eid celebrations. This ban was put out in two provinces of Afghanistan, reports said.

In a video clip released Thursday, Sadiq Akif Mahjer, the spokesman for the Taliban-run Virtue and Vice Ministry, listed a series of services salons offered that he said went against Islam. Those included eyebrow shaping, the use of other people’s hair to augment a woman’s natural hair and the application of makeup, which would interfere with the ablutions required before offering prayers, he said.

In addition, the salons cause economic stress on grooms’ families, who are required by custom to pay for the pre-wedding salon visit by the bride and her close female relatives, he said. The ban comes days after the Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, claimed his government had taken steps for the betterment of women’s lives in Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, the Taliban authorities banned families and women from dining in establishments with gardens and outdoor space in the Herat region.

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