Asia | Last chance salon

Turkmenistan’s new president is clamping down on women’s freedoms

The idea is to force them to stay at home and have more babies

ASHGABAT, TURKMENISTAN - NOVEMBER 30: Turkmen student walks at a street in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan on November 30, 2021. (Photo by Aytac Unal/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
|ALMATY

A trip to the beauty salon for a manicure followed by a lift home does not usually constitute an act of subversion. But for women in Turkmenistan such everyday activities are now against the law, subject to fines of up to half the minimum monthly wage. Beauticians who tend to them can be jailed for 15 days.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Last chance salon”

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