麻豆社

For women in Afghanistan, the seizing of power by the Taliban in 2021 has meant a growing restriction on their freedoms. They鈥檝e already been banned from the classroom and from gyms and then this week came another blow: hair salons have been given a month to close down.

There鈥檚 been no explanation as to why hair salons have been targeted, but it may well be down to the Taliban鈥檚 religious beliefs. Women鈥檚 hair has long been seen by different forms of Islam, Judaism and Christianity, as highly sexual, leading people to believe that on the grounds of modesty, it should be covered up.

I can well remember from my childhood, for example, women covering their hair in church, and tucked away in a drawer I still have my own mantilla, or black lace veil. The Roman Catholic nuns who taught me at school all wore veils with their habits.

These rules about hair were usually imposed by men. But not always. The nuns who taught me followed the edicts of their order鈥檚 founder, a woman, and freely chose to dress like that. Their habits and veils identified them as belonging to a particular community.

This idea of community is a particularly powerful one in religion, and following rules and rituals can help us express our sense of belonging. Sometimes the rituals so powerfully reflect our identity that even those who are lapsed believers still practise them. I know of Jewish people, for example, who still gather with their family for a Friday night meal at the start of the sabbath, even though they don鈥檛 attend synagogue.

But when religious rules and rituals clash with contemporary Western notions about individuality, it can cause real conflict. For many women in the West, wearing what they want and yes, showing their hair publicly, is part of how they express themselves. And that can feel like a challenge to religious views about the need for modesty.

Yet the individual 鈥� the person unique in the eyes of God 鈥� matters in religion too. One of the psalms refers to the specialness of each person, and addresses God, 鈥測ou created my inmost being鈥� I praise you because I am wonderfully made鈥�. And in Matthew鈥檚 Gospel, Jesus articulates the worth of every person to God when he says: 鈥淓ven the very hairs of your head are all numbered.鈥�

When I鈥檇 finished chemotherapy for cancer and my hair was growing again, after months of being bald, those words had a particular resonance. My hair, like everybody鈥檚, was an expression of individuality, not just in terms of how we look, but how unique, how precious each and everyone of us is.

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