Locks of liberty: The hidden hair trade in Taliban’s shadow

Inside a small shop in Kabul, a shopkeeper carefully adjusts wigs on mannequin heads. The expressions are blank, but the message is unmistakable — behind each wig lies a story of survival, of quiet resistance, of someone risking much for very little.

These photographs document the fading traces of a practice once commonplace. Before the Taliban returned to power, women like Fatima could sell their hair freely, earning enough to buy essentials like food, schoolbooks, or medicine. Now, under strict new rules enforced by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, selling human hair is illegal — part of a broader clampdown on everyday freedoms.

In one salon, a hairdresser combs her client’s long strands with careful attention, her hands steady but her eyes wary. In another, loose strands are quietly swept from the floor, destined for wigs that may never reach a buyer. These moments, captured behind closed doors, speak of a quiet determination to keep going — even when everything is stacked against them.

The sale of hair, once a modest but important source of income for women, has now moved into the shadows. Some wigmakers continue to operate, treading carefully. Wigs are still displayed in shop windows, in hopes that a customer might come — and that the authorities will not.

One image shows a shopkeeper holding a bundle of wigs, his stance calm but alert. Others show rows of mannequin heads, each adorned with wigs made from the hair of women who can no longer speak openly about their needs. These images are more than commercial snapshots — they are fragments of a reality many would rather ignore.

For women like Fatima, the decision to sell hair is no longer just financial. It’s about holding onto a sense of purpose and contribution in a society that has left little space for either.

Since returning to power in August 2021, after two decades of conflict, the Taliban have imposed severe restrictions on women’s rights, undoing years of progress. Education, employment, and public life for women have been drastically reduced, often by force. Under these rules, even the most personal acts — like cutting one’s hair — are policed.