A Somali woman shows her henna painted hands in Hargeisa on March 04, 2001 during the 12th Hargeisa Trade ExhibitionTBEN’s Mary Harper recounts her experiences in Somali beauty salons. In communities where women are expected to cover up and keep quiet, beauty salons are a place where they can breathe and shed the trappings of their male-dominated societies. Mary got henna scraped off her feetThe first time I visited a Somali beauty salon, there was something odd about the woman who opened the door. It was started by a Somali woman who decided to return home from Canada where she had lived for decades after fleeing the civil war. Every time they produce them, I remember another Somali woman wielding a knife whose intent had nothing to do with beauty.

Source: Ethiopian News May 22, 2022 00:49 UTC