Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August, women's faces have been artlessly deleted from advertisements and murals as the militant Islamists shape a bleak new way of life. (These photos were taken by a freelancer in Kabul who requested anonymity for security reasons.)
You Go Girl: Female Faces Disappear From Kabul Streets
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A mural in Kabul featuring a woman voter that has been spray-painted to cover her face
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Closed beauty salons with women’s faces painted over. A local in Kabul says such businesses were almost exclusively female-run. That person says in some cases it was fearful male relatives of store owners who rushed to deface the businesses.
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The entrance to a closed beauty salon in Kabul's Shar-e Naw neighborhood
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A woman’s face that was painted over at the entrance to a shopping mall
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A Taliban fighter with an American-made rifle walks past a beauty salon with images of women defaced using spray paint in Shar-e-Naw.
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A mural promoting women's rights and a free press in Kabul with the females' faces blotted out. Some defacing of images such as this are believed to have been done by locals who support the Taliban and their worldview.
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Workers paint over a mural featuring a young woman’s face. The men are professional sign writers, who later painted various slogans and pro-Taliban murals over the wall. The painters said they had been hired by the Taliban for the job.
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The young woman’s face disappearing under white paint as the workers advance
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A wall is painted white with a message declaring: “For an Islamic system and independence, you must endure tests and stay patient.”
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A boy walks through the corridor of a clothing market in which every female face of models has been painted over.
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A row of beauty salons in which women’s faces -- at least those within easy reach -- have been hastily covered by foil
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The facade of a beauty salon in Shar-e Naw
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Students listen to a lecture at a private university in Kabul on September 6. The Taliban has decreed that students must be segregated by gender. Other photos from Kabul show male and female students separated by a curtain.