Afghan women brave risk of punishment over hair trade

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KABUL: Women like Fatima can freely put their hair in the wig, which earns significant income before Taliban officials handling Afghanistan.

However, last year, a ban 28 -year -old and others forced a stand, a stand, 28 -year -old and others at a time, sometimes deposited with salon floor or shower drains, which threatens to fines.

“I need this money,” said Fatima, 28, who is one of the few women, who still paid a private job in Kabul after gaining Taliban control in 2021.

“I can cure something with me or buy things for home.”

A woman, who halt her last name for security reasons, sells more than $ 3 to 100 grams of hair, which is a small increase in her monthly salary of $ 100.

“Buyers who want to export locks for wig production abroad,” he said, “Knock on our doors to collect hair.”

One of these buyers is a man who requested not to disclose his name, sent Manse to Pakistan and China from Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world.

Taliban officials say that women’s rights, which the United Nations is called “gender color”.

They banned women and girls from universities and schools, and effectively strangled their hopes for employment.

Women have also been stopped from parks and Jammu, while beauty salons have been closed.

‘Hair is banned’

Last year, Taliban officials imposed vice and virtue laws for men and women, including the ban on the sale of “any part of the human body”, including hair.

They have not said what will be the punishment for violations.

“We must respect the outward appearance that God has given to human beings and maintain their dignity,” Deputy PVPV spokesman Safal Islam Khyber told AFP.

He said the hair trade has become “normal” in the country and no longer is “allowed to sell physical organs.”

Hair sales are so sensitive that the ministry, which dealt with ethics issues, burned about a tonne human wires in Kabul province in January.

PVPV said in a statement that it burned the batch “to protect Islamic values ​​and human dignity.”

However, sanctions have not stopped Fatima.

During the time of prayer, when Taliban officials and forces attended the mosque, Fatima hid at the place of waste in Kabul and handed it over to the reservoir of her trace.

According to the UN Development Program (UNDP), some additional dollars are significant, of which 85 % of Afghans are less than a dollar.

Underground salon

In a secret salon in Kabul, two wearing leather chairs sit in a small, cold room where the hair dresser Narajas now receives four rocks a week.

Before the 2021 takeover, a 43 -year -old widow’s hair dresser used to harvest five to six customers daily.

Now, only of its users visit the most wealthy salon, and even sometimes they ask if they can take valuable spare hair home with them.

“They are the only ones who can still care about beauty,” he said.

For others, the threat of Taliban punishment is at high risk.

Wilda, a 33 -year -old widow whose husband was a soldier killed in 2021, has a permanent problem for how she will feed her three children.

She still collects hair that falls from her eight -year -old daughter’s head and her own, whose root is far more valuable than those who cut the stands scissors.

The unemployed Afghan women, who now rely on the Entire fully on charities, later fill them in a plastic bag for potential sale.

He sat in his house and said, “When I was selling my hair, I had a shine of hope. Now when it is banned, I am destroyed. I hope buyers will return to my door.”

“I know there are places to sell. But I’m afraid to get stuck there.”