Days after Taliban pledged to respect women’s rights as part of a publicity blitz following a lightning offensive across Afghanistan, the Islamist organisation is back to doing what it has been known for. Pictures of women on streets, billboards have been covered up or vandalised by the Islamist group.
Today, social media is rife with pictures of the facade of a beauty salon with images of women defaced with spray paint in Shar-e-Naw in Kabul. AFP News agency took to Twitter to share the images.
The facade of a beauty saloon with images of women is defaced with spray paint in Shar-e-Naw in Kabul, Afghanistan.
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 19, 2021
UK warns Taliban will be judged on its “actions rather than by its words” : https://t.co/BIdWtMRtb5 pic.twitter.com/viXfxuGcjp
Another image surfaced on the microblogging site also showed a gun-wielding Talibani walking past the same salon with the images of the defaced women in the background.
With the Taliban’s return to power, are women safe?
— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) August 19, 2021
LOOK: The facade of a beauty saloon is pictured with images of women defaced using a spray paint in Shar-e-Naw in Kabul on August 18, after Taliban’s military takeover in Afghanistan. | ?Wakii Kohsar/AFP pic.twitter.com/p0Jx5n5Dr4
Earlier, a picture of a man whitewashing the posters of women models in Kabul had gone viral. According to reports, the images of women were painted on the walls of a salon in the Afghanistan capital. This image had been widely shared across social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, with netizens expressing shock at how the picture depicts the “literal erasure of women” in the war-ravaged country.
As Taliban recaptures power, burqa sales skyrocket in Afghanistan
Meanwhile, as Taliban recaptured power in Afghanistan, reports suggest that the sale of burqas have skyrocketed in the country. With the Afghan women staring at the resurgence of atrocities and oppression under Taliban rule, the burqa prices have reportedly surged tenfolds in the country.
Burqa sales skyrocket in Afghanistan after Kabul fell to the Taliban.
— News18 (@CNNnews18) August 19, 2021
Here’s a ground report. pic.twitter.com/zvAzHr8sbu
As per CNN journalist Clarrisa Ward, people are buying more and more burqas as they are afraid with the resurgence of Taliban in the country. She spoke to the burqa shopkeeper who said that the sales have surged with men buying burqas for their wives, daughters and other women of the house.
During the earlier Taliban rule, women were required to cover their bodies and faces in a burqa, and were barred from school, work or leaving the house without a male relative. However, Taliban had recently claimed that women need not compulsorily wear burqa but a hijab (head scarf) is must be worn.
Afghan woman shot for not wearing burqa after Taliban vow to act ‘moderate’ and give women their rights
The group, on Tuesday, had reportedly shot dead a woman in Afghanistan for not wearing a burqa. The incident surfaced on the same day the Taliban announced to act ‘moderate’ and give women their rights in accordance with Islamic Sharia.
A photo of the deceased woman lying in a pool of blood with her loved ones crouched around her sent shock waves in the already distressed country. As per reports, the woman was shot by the Taliban in Takhar province for not wearing a burqa while in public.
Ironically, on the same day, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid held a press conference to say that the Islamist group would honour women’s rights and also urged women to return to school and work.
