また一つ奪われる自由…タリバン閉鎖命令の美容院、最後の日

【カブールＡＦＰ＝時事】アフガニスタンの首都カブールで、シリンさんは数週間前から美容院にブライダル用の予約を入れていた。美容師らが念入りにシリンさんのヘアメークを進める店内では、リラックスした空気が漂うどころか、誰もがぴりぴりしていた。いつ警察が踏み込んできても花嫁を隠せるように、店の外には見張りを立てている。（写真は営業禁止令発行前の最終日に美容院に入るアフガニスタンの女性）
　「たとえ刑務所に入れられることになってもやる。約束だから」とオーナーは話した。
　数人の美容師がシリンさんの周りで立ち働く中、他の従業員たちは店の片付けに追われていた。
　タリバンは２０２１年８月の政権掌握以降、高校・大学での女子教育や公園・遊園地・スポーツジムへの女性の立ち入りを禁止したほか、外出の際には常にヒジャブやブルカの着用を義務付けるなど、女性の公共の場での自由を制限している。国連（ＵＮ）やＮＧＯへの勤務も禁じ、政府機関で働いていた多数の女性が解雇されるか、有給での自宅待機を続けている。
　美容院は多くの女性にとって家計を支える唯一の収入源となっていた。閉鎖命令は、女性から収入を得る手段と、社会的な交流の場を奪う新たな措置となった。
　カブールの美容院を利用していた女性（２１）は、「美容院が閉鎖されると聞いて、がくぜんとした。私たちにとっては、身だしなみを整えるだけではなく、友達に会ったり、友達をつくったり、おしゃべりしたり、つらいことを紛らしたりする場所だったから」と語った。
　「女性は娯楽施設に入ることを許されてない。じゃあ、私たちはどうすれば？ どこなら楽しい時間を過ごせるのか。友人とどこに集まればいいのか」と嘆いた。
　マニジャさん（２８）は、２０１８年から自身の美容院に時間と資金をつぎ込み、女性たち約２００人を育成。美容師として独り立ちさせてきた。
　現在の従業員２５人は全員、一家の大黒柱だが、振り出しに戻ることになる。マニジャさんのこれまでの努力も水の泡だ。
　「私はこの国にとどまって税金も納めてきたのに、美容院が閉鎖されるなんて。本当に悔しい。国の経済にとっても、私たちにとっても大打撃だ」とＡＦＰに話した。
　カメラさん（１９）が１年前に美容院で働き始めたのは、メディア業界での職を失い、学業を続けられなくなったためだ。５人家族を一人で養ってきたが、美容院の給料がなければ、この先どうすればいいか分からないという。
　美容院を訪れた最後の客の長い黒髪を編みながら、「美容院の閉鎖は、私にとってすべての扉が閉ざされるのと同じ。アフガニスタンでは、女性として働くことも生きることもできなくなる」と話した。
　「タリバンは明日には、女性は息をするなと言い出すかもしれない」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/07/27-17:07）

Shirin booked her bridal makeover weeks ago, but instead of relaxing as beauticians pampered her, everyone in the Kabul salon was on edge, ready to hide the bride should the police appear.
Shirin was the last customer at a salon in Afghanistan's capital, one of thousands across the country shuttered on Tuesday by order of Taliban authorities.
I have someone on watch outside in case the Taliban arrive. If something happens, we'll put her in the bathroom or store room and look busy packing, salon owner Aziza said.
Even if they put me in prison, I will do her makeover because I promised her.
As some beauticians fluttered around Shirin, others were busy packing up the salon.
Like tens of thousands of other parlour employees, they have been pushed from one of the last remaining areas of work open to women under the Taliban government.
The ban on beauty parlours is the latest blow not only to women's earning capabilities -- with salon owners and worker salaries often the only source of income for households -- but also to their social lives.
We were heartbroken when we heard salons were closing because they were places where we not only took care of our appearance, but we could see friends and make new ones, chat and ease our sorrows, said 21-year-old Bahara, a salon customer in Kabul.
Women are not allowed to enter entertainment places, so what can we do? Where can we go to enjoy ourselves? Where can we gather to meet each other?
Since sweeping back to power in August 2021, Taliban authorities have banned girls and women from attending high school and university, barred them from visiting parks, fun-fairs and gyms, and have ordered them to cover up in public.
Women have also been mostly blocked from working for the United Nations or NGOs, with thousands sacked from government jobs or being paid to stay at home.
- All doors closed -
Kamela started working in a salon a year ago when she lost her media job and was no longer able to continue her education. As the sole breadwinner for her family of five, the 19-year-old doesn't know what she'll do without her beauty parlour paycheck.
Closing beauty salons means all doors are closed to me, which means I cannot work and live as a woman in Afghanistan, she told AFP this week, braiding the long black hair of one of the salon's last clients.
Maybe tomorrow the Taliban will say that women are not allowed to breathe.
Manizha, 28, poured time and money into growing her own salon since 2018, training some 200 women to work in the industry and also become self-sufficient.
Now her current 25 employees, all the main earners in their families, are back to square one, and Manizha must watch as her efforts go to waste.
I worked so hard and now my achievement is reduced to nothing, she told AFP.
I stayed in the country and paid tax to the government, and now they are closing down our beauty salon. It is such a shame, this is a huge blow to the country's economy and to us.
In the weeks before the ban went into effect, women rushed to salons to have their hair dyed and eyebrows shaped -- their last chance to do something for themselves.
The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice claimed extravagant sums spent on makeovers caused hardship for poor families and some treatments -- such as eyelash extensions and hair weaving -- were un-Islamic.
But beautician Najla felt the work was a good, ethical living.
I was doing a good job, I was able to get a bit of bread to take home. What will I do now? said the orphan, who looks after her siblings.
What do they actually want from us? They have closed all the places to women. Maybe one day they'll just say, 'Whenever a girl is born, bury her alive'.