The Taliban have closed hair and beauty salons in Afghanistan, the latest restriction on women.

A spokesman for the Vice and Virtue Ministry told the BBC businesses would have one month to comply after learning of the move on 2 July.

Since the Taliban seized power in 2021, women’s freedoms have steadily declined.

Most recently, they even banned teenage girls and women from working at the United Nations.

In addition, the Taliban have decreed that women should wear clothing that only reveals their eyes and must travel with a male relative if they are travelling more than 72km (48 miles).

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Despite international condemnation and protests by women as well as activists, the restrictions remain in place.

When the Taliban ruled between 1996 and 2001, beauty salons were closed as part of a broad range of measures. Following the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, they reopened.

“The Taliban are denying Afghan women their most basic human rights,” an anonymous Afghan woman told the BBC.

As a result of this decision, women are now unable to serve another woman. I was shocked when I heard the news.

There seems to be no political plan for the Taliban other than to eliminate women from public life at all levels.

The Taliban retook power two years ago after US forces withdrew. Women are often spray painted to hide their faces outside salons, and shop windows are often covered up.

There has been no explanation from the Taliban government as to why salons have been closed, or what alternatives women will have after the salons close.

According to another Afghan woman who asked not to be named, her friends confirmed that hair salons in Kabul and elsewhere have closed. According to her, the news is more shocking for Afghan women. My locality had no salons open when I went out.”