![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/talking-to-the-taliban-right-or-wrong/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/130789978_90e5bfe8a72a21e236e92f365e4eca1a21deac92178_214_5205_29281000x563.jpg&description=Image caption, Taliban fighters stand at a checkpoint in Kabul, September 2022 Two years since the Taliban swept into power in Afghanistan, not a single country has formally recognised their rule. Even engaging with the Taliban government remains deeply controversial. Some say talking with them will help bring about change, others insist the Taliban will never change so there's no point in talking. And as the world struggles to decide how to deal with Afghanistan's new rulers, women's rights - even their beauty salons - have become frontlines in political battles. Beautician Sakina - in a dimly lit room, curtains tightly drawn, alongside bunches of lip pencils and gleaming palettes of eye shadow - reflects on why she feels women like her have become a bargaining chip. "The Taliban are putting pressure on women because they want to push the international community to recognise their rule," she says in her new secret salon in Kabul. She was forced underground two weeks ago after the government ordered all women's beauty parlours to shut. It is the latest in a seemingly endless raft of decrees restricting the lives and liberties of Afghan women and girls. Sakina is uncertain what approach to the Taliban will work. "If the Taliban are accepted as the government, they might remove restrictions on us, or they could impose even more," she says, with the kind of uncertainty and anxiety that plagues this huge, sensitive political issue. The Taliban insist issues like women's rights are none of the world's business. "Focusing on this one issue is just an excuse" says Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban. Speaking to the BBC from the Afghan city of Kandahar - home to the Taliban's supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada - he insists that "the current government should have been recognised long ago. We have made progress in some areas and we will also sort this issue." Whether to talk or not to the Taliban government sharply splits many communities with a stake in Afghan){kind=link}
Two years since the Taliban swept into power in Afghanistan, not a single country has formally recognised their rule.
Even engaging with the Taliban government remains deeply controversial. Some say talking with them will help bring about change, others insist the Taliban will never change so there’s no point in talking.
And as the world struggles to decide how to deal with Afghanistan’s new rulers, women’s rights – even their beauty salons – have become frontlines in political battles.
Beautician Sakina – in a dimly lit room, curtains tightly drawn, alongside bunches of lip pencils and gleaming palettes of eye shadow – reflects on why she feels women like her have become a bargaining chip.
“The Taliban are putting pressure on women because they want to push the international community to recognise their rule,” she says in her new secret salon in Kabul.