The Taliban government has ordered the closure of thousands of beauty salons. The move is aimed at keeping women increasingly out of public life. The Taliban have excluded women from most secondary schools, universities, and public administrations. Women are also not allowed to enter parks, gardens, gyms and public baths, to travel unaccompanied by a male relative and must fully cover themselves when leaving their homes. "I think it would be better if women didn't exist at all in this society," says a Kabul salon worker.
Male newsreaders have been wearing masks on Afghan TV to protest a new Taliban ruling forcing women to cover their faces on air.Earlier this month, Afghanistan s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a diktat for women to cover up fully .
Afghanistan s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice extended the ruling to women appearing on television over the weekend with some refusing to comply.
In Afghanistan's capital of Kabul, on Tuesday, the Taliban opened fire on women protestors near a building that housed the ministry of women's affairs.