22 days.
That's how much longer
beauty salons
are able to stay open in Afghanistan
under Taliban rule.
All shops across
the country were given
one month's notice to close down.
That is according to a Taliban spokesman.
It is the latest move by the Taliban
to roll back rights for women
who are already largely
confined to their homes
with bans on this work and study.
Here's Katy Polglase with more
Driving through the streets of Kabul,
among the brightly colored shops
is one
lost symbol of women
being visible in the public life,
squeezing them out of sight.
Taliban authorities
ordered beauty parlors
to be shut within the month,
sending shockwaves
for women already gripped in a chokehold.
A salon owner
who did not want to be identified
for safety reasons
told CNN the Taliban's order
means her poverty stricken family
cannot afford the bare essentials
I don't
understand why beauty
salons should be banned, she says.
My husband is jobless
and this beauty salon
is the only means to feed my family.
I, for kids, they need food and clothes.
The Taliban
seized back power
in the summer of 20, 21,
with thousands of terrified families
flocking to Kabul.
Airport
desperate to escape
the group's barbaric rule.
While the Taliban vowed reform,
promising to be more progressive
than their previous rule.
Women
were quickly erased from public life,
banning teenage
girls from secondary
and higher education,
and ordering nonprofit organizations
to stop their female employees
from coming to work.
The salon owner
we spoke to says
she doesn't know
what more can be taken from them
before there's nothing left at all.
No woman is showing off her face
with makeup outside
and were already wearing hijab in public,
she says.
This will further deprive women of
their rights and freedoms
As the Taliban
slowly chipped away at their rights.
Hope is slowly dwindling for some women,
but others still haven't been deterred
from raising their voices,
even if it means risking their lives.
Katie Polglase, CNN, London.
All right.
Let's get a deeper understanding
of the implications of the move.
Joining me now
in the studio is Fawzia Koofi,
the former deputy speaker
of the Afghan parliament.
Fawzia, great
to have you here on the show.
Look, I think
what one of the ladies said there,
what more can be taken from us?
And just watching that,
that's moved you, hasn't it?
It is very emotional
while we try to demonstrate
our warrior side, not as a victim,
but looking at what has been achieved
over the last 20 years
and how much women were in the forefront
of all of that
fighting for the global security
and see that now they are kind of
pushed to corner
to become invisible
and erased from all spheres of life is
is not a very easy moment for me
who have been part of all ups
and downs of Afghanistan
Give our viewers
a sense of some of the stories
you've been hearing
because you know, our reporter
Katie put into context
in terms of slowly
chipping away at women's rights,
slowly pushing away
women away from civil society.
What are you hearing from Afghan women?
Women of
Afghanistan are
very, very disappointed,
obviously
undergoing a lot
of mental health pressure
because can you imagine
that they are being deprived
of all the basic fundamental rights,
the right to work education,
attending gyms, attending parks,
going to public places,
and their existence
and being is being questioned.
Sometimes my colleagues and staff
and like my friends from Kabul,
tell me that you know,
when they get out of their homes,
they stop them and tell them
that you're not supposed
to go to university or school.
You're not supposed to go to office
and work.
Why are you out in the street
that feeling of being controlled
by somebody
as a human being is not a nice feeling.
The whole existence of being as a woman
is being now
kind of taken away from by Taliban.
And I imagine, you know, the salons
and it probably doesn't
mean much
to us here in the West
who take it for granted,
but for some of these women,
this was a sanctuary
when everything else
is being taken away from.
This is where women could actually speak
with each other,
spend time with each other.
I suspect Exactly.
So these beauty salons were
not only as a growing business
because women lost jobs in other fields
and other areas.
This was a growing business for them,
but also a place where women could go
and exercise
their feminine
kind of part of their themselves
and talk to each other. Social gathering.
This was probably the only place where
women could go without being questioned.
Where are they going?
But now they have asked them to stop
that.
We are very much disappointed for
the fact that when these attacks
come only
that is the time that women
of Afghanistan news gets to the headlines
and the world talks about it
otherwise, about the centuries
and decades
worst human rights, a catastrophe.
The world doesn't
really talk a lot about it.
And it's as if it's
one of the forgotten stories.
And this is the disappointing part
because you know,
we believe that
what is happening in Afghanistan
could have a global consequence.
Why do you think is being forgotten?
The women of Afghanistan
have been forgotten.
I think the whole
people of Kabul failing.
Who is failing? The women? The world.
The world is failing
the women of Afghanistan
because during the negotiation
that the Americans had with the Taliban,
the Taliban
clearly said
and during the negotiation
they had with us,
I was talking with them.
They clearly said that they will respect
women, Islamic rights,
that they will allow women to go to work
and even become prime
minister and foreign minister.
This is something they have said
during negotiation
to get the deal signed
with the Americans.
Once they signed the deal
and they got to power,
this is what was given to them.
Basically, Now,
they started slowly
and gradually suppressing women.
They started from allowing
not allowing women to go to school,
which has no space in Islam,
has no space in other Muslim countries.
And I think this is
where the Muslim countries
really should speak up.
And then the world
should have a united position
because the women of Afghanistan
surely must not become
a politicized issue. Absolutely.
Let me ask you this,
Luba Siraj, the the activist
and the nominee for the Nobel Peace
Prize has said there's no choice
but to talk to Afghanistan's new rule
as the time has come,
she said, to engage with the Taliban.
What do you make of that?
Well, so the point is,
the world has been engaged
for more than two years with Taliban.
They have been engaged for many,
many years to get the deal signed,
which they give so much to the Taliban
in the whole Doha agreement.
There is no mention of women
and human rights
This deal is basically a submissive deal
to the Taliban.
And since they came to power,
there has been engagement
at different level
with different levels of Taliban
from the world,
from international community.
Now, the question is,
what have we achieved?
So I'm not saying we should not engage,
because obviously at the end of any war,
there should be a peace
and there should be engagement.
What I'm saying is
there should be a principled engagement
as a result of which we know what is
what is it that the world want to engage
with Taliban.
You know, the further engagement
without any principled position
will only embolden them.
And emboldening of Taliban
is not in the interests of the country
and in the interests
of the women of Afghanistan
and might give them a free pass
diplomatic legitimacy.
These are all concerns. No. One,
I suspect, at this stage.
Fawzia Koofi, really appreciate you
taking the time to speak to us.
Thank you very much.