In most of the world there are few businesses more harmless than a beauty salon. The shop windows on the streets of many cities are usually filled with photographs of men and women with hairstyles and looks modern to attract customers. In Afghanistan, however, the Taliban who took over Kabul, the capital, in 2021, banned women's beauty salons in July 2023. Overnight, this activity became clandestine.
At the entrance to one of these centers in the middle of the busy streets of the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi (next to the capital, Islamabad) there is a doorman who controls access. Although they are no longer in Afghanistan, the entrepreneurs behind the beauty salon still operate in stealth. “You can talk about a school that teaches beauty classes, but without mentioning the names of those behind it, for now. We have to be very careful with privacy,” says the financier of the project from abroad, in a telephone conversation.
In November 2023, the Government of Pakistan began a mass deportation of Afghans residing there irregularly.
More than two years have passed since many of the Afghan students fled their country. The situation they are going through is still very delicate, so training at this center is presented as an opportunity.
Despite the uncertainty and trauma that the refugees endure, the fact that 30 of them can participate for free for three months in a course where they learn hairdressing, makeup or aesthetic techniques gives them a breath of hope for the future. “The students say that before they were always at home, thinking about what they should do, day after day…” says Fawzia, the center's coordinator, an Afghan of the Hazara ethnic group, who is in Pakistan without her family. “When they come to this school, they make friends, they work, they have fun and their mind changes completely. They're happy”.
This February the fifth edition of the course ended, through which more than 150 students have already passed. However, the subsequent work reality will be more difficult. “Some will find work, but not all. Many do not know Urdu (the public and national language of Pakistan), or English, they do not have a visa, or if they do, it will expire soon,” acknowledges the coordinator.
To address this problem, Waqar, a Pakistani involved in helping Afghans who was one of the creators of the beauty salon and who also visits the center today, came up with an idea. “The industry of spa It is one of the most important sources of income for women, and we wanted Afghan women to learn the trade. Even so, language difficulties mean that many cannot find work, which is why we now offer English courses on-line free.”, he points out.
An uncertain future
While they learn makeup techniques, how to do manicures, pedicures, and cut or dye their hair, these women put aside—even if only for a few moments—their main concern: the difficulties of renewing their Pakistani visas. Pakistan hosts 1.3 million Afghan refugees, and more than 800,000 people from this country who have a Pakistani citizenship card, in addition to approximately 1.5 million in an irregular situation, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Of these 1.5 million, 600,000 arrived in the country after the Taliban took over Kabul in August 2021.
In November 2023, the country's Government began a mass deportation of Afghans residing on Pakistani soil irregularly. The reason Islamabad uses is the rise of attacks in Pakistan, which the Government attributes to Pakistani Taliban trained in the neighboring country with Taliban consent. In accordance with UNHCRBetween September 15 of last year and this March, more than half a million Afghans have returned to their country, after receiving an ultimatum from Pakistan. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have asked the cessation of refugee deportations, arguing that Afghans are exposed in their country to “persecution, human rights violations and a humanitarian catastrophe.”
Arifa, one of the students at the center, says that the announcement left them in a bad situation. “My visa expired on November 23, and the owners of the home where we live told us we had to leave.” And, in addition to the pressure that falls on the Afghans, the owners also suffer coercion from the authorities who order them not to rent their home to Afghans who do not have valid documents. Arifa and her five family members were finally able to renew the visa for six more months. “We don't know what will happen next,” she laments. “The police have come to our block twice. “My brother was arrested and spent 12 hours in prison.”
Narghees, Arifa's classmate on the course, is in a similar situation. “In three months my visa will expire. I will try to renew it, but it is very expensive, and it also depends on whether the Government decides to renew it,” she explains. She arrived in Pakistan a year and a half ago, out of fear of the Taliban. Her mother, father and brother died in an attack in Bamiyan for being Hazaras, the ethnic group most hated by fundamentalists, she claims.
Living for years in uncertainty leads Afghans to the most extreme situations. “Sometimes we hear of cases of Afghans committing suicide,” Fawzia acknowledges. “They see that a year or two passes, and nothing happens. They remain here without money or work. They also do not have the possibility of going to other countries, and they cannot return to Afghanistan. They fall into depression, and take their own lives.”
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