November 18, 2001
It's hard to believe, but

It's hard to believe, but this is the other Newsweek press release that went up today: Newsweek: Afghan Woman Who Had Secret Beauty Parlor in Kabul Says in a Month Or Two, 'I'll be One of the First to Open a Beauty Shop in Public'

An Afghanistan woman who secretly operated a beauty parlor in her home for five years tells Newsweek's Melinda Liu that although hers is still a "Taliban style" beauty salon, in a month or two, "I'll be one of the first to open a beauty shop in public. I hope you and other Western women will come."

Sure I'll be on the next plane. Pencil me in for Sunday at 2:45...

The woman, named Latifa, wore lipstick and had dyed auburn hair. She secretly styled women's hair, applied makeup, hidden by the all-enveloping burqa, which covers the face, and played forbidden music cassettes and videotapes for women who lounged on sofas covered in leopard-print material in her living room...

And isn't that what freedom is all about? (Lounging on leopard-skinned sofas, listening to Elvis the pelvis and secretly piercing your ears..)

The politics of post-Taliban Afghanistan still need to be sorted out and Afghan women are waiting to see if Northern Alliance representatives are serious about women's liberation.

So it's in the hands of the Northern Alliance, is it? How unfortunate. They haven't been overly concerned with women's rights in the past.

Under Taliban rule, Afghan women were forbidden to work or show their faces and were required to wear the burqa. But since last week, Afghan women are venturing into public again and looking for work...

And food and shelter...

At least four women got jobs at Radio Afghanistan, and others continued to stop by the radio station to apply. "When I heard the Taliban was finished, I rejoiced beyond measure," says Rida Azimi, 25, one of the first women to read the news at Radio Afghanistan after the Taliban fled. After Azimi heard the news about the Taliban's defeat, she joyously burned her burqa at home. "I felt so depressed wearing the veil," she tells Newsweek. "Now I see the sunlight and it's so beautiful."
Posted by Lisa at November 18, 2001 02:50 PM | TrackBack
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