By Behzad Sadiq
First, the Taliban forced women to stop working in government offices and foreign aid groups.
Now, many who’ve turned to weaving, sewing and making handicrafts fear sluggish sales will force them to lose their livelihoods again.
Rukhshana Media spoke to several women struggling to survive in the handicraft sector in the southern Afghan province of Zabul.
Shabana, who is 22, was an employee of the Department of Women’s Affairs, working to support women’s rights before the Taliban took over. Now she stays at home, embroidering clothing with her two sisters.
Working long hours, she earns 300 Afghanis a day, equivalent to US$3.50. She gives part of that to her 40-year-old brother Amanullah to help support his 12 children. He did military duty in the former government but now owns an old iron shop.
Shabana sews hats and outfits at home. She or one of her sisters sells them to shopkeepers for low prices.
“I want the Taliban to create a handicrafts market for women, because women are prohibited from their official duties and the Taliban have narrowed the field for women’s work,” Shabana says.
But so far, things are only getting worse for women handicraft workers, many of whom are the sole breadwinners for their families.
Zar Bibi is 40 years old and has doing this work for five years, after being trained in embroidery by an NGO. Her husband died four years ago leaving her with twelve children; seven daughters and five sons. Three of the daughters are married. Her eldest son, who is 17, is an apprentice in a car repair shop.
Zar Bibi works at home with two of her daughters and sells the finished good to the shopkeepers in the “Likko” market in the city of Qalat, the center of Zabul. Her specialty is khamekdozi, women’s floral dresses and handmade hats. It’s hard work but pays little. She says she can barely feed her family.
“Every day I sew five or six types of women’s clothes and about twenty hats in a month,” she says. “My daughters embroider five outfits every month. I take them all to the market for sale; But now with the arrival of the Taliban, our sales have decreased a lot. No one likes to buy these things.”
The United Nations estimates women’s self-employment has dropped by 25 per cent under the Taliban’s rule because of their restrictions on women’s work.
Gul Bashara, 45, is the owner of Spozhmai tailoring center in Zabul. The center has 15 male and female apprentices producing handicrafts.
She says before the Taliban, she earned an average of 100,000 afghanis (USD 1175) per month, which easily paid for the center, herself, and the students’ wages. Now she earns a maximum of 40,000 afghanis (USD 470) a month.
According to Gul Bashara, if the situation continues she will not be able to cover the costs of the tailoring and will have to close. She says neither the Taliban nor NGOs are giving enough support.
However, the Taliban insist they are providing a path for women to learn handicrafts.
Mawlawi Abdul Wakil Khadim, head of work and social affairs of the Taliban in Zabul says 300 women have been trained in production by organizations like JKRO, NCC and SHO in the center of Qalat and Shahjoy district.
“No action has been taken to build a separate market for the sale of women’s handicrafts;” Mr. Khadim says. “But if we are allowed by the elders, we have a plan to create a market for handicrafts for women, to provide the basis for transfer and sale in other provinces.”
But statistics show less women are being trained than before the Taliban took over, when 500 women in Zabul were taking handicraft production courses.
