Aqela Revisited - Afghanistan 2007

In 2003 I met Aqela, a beautician in Kabul. She told about her life and work (see: Back to Kabul 2003), the problems of being the breadwinner of her family and the danger of running a beauty parlour - facing repercussions by sympathisers of the Taliban. In 2007 I visited Aqela again and things happened to have changed dramatically. Business is going well, there are more customers than four years ago, and not only on Friday for the wedding parties. She moved her beauty parlour to a bigger space which is nicely decorated. Both her sister and her daughter are helping her there. When I arrived the place was bursting with excited women preparing for a wedding party. On the private level, Aqela feels more secure and when she goes out she does not wear a burqa anymore, just a chador (scarf) and an overcoat. It is getting better with her husband - a war victim, who is now working in a shop. Her oldest son - unemployed in 2003 - is following an IT-course, her daughter is getting married to an Afghan in Germany and her youngest son is attending school.