By Hania Forotan
In a house in a quiet residential district of Kabul, a 25-year-old woman named Nahid sits at her sewing machine making traditional Afghan clothes. On the other side of the city, Nargis, a few years younger at 22, is busy taking orders for handbags over the phone.
Both young women grew up in a more hopeful time, when girls in Afghanistan could finish school and dream big, and both saw their ambitions of further education and professional careers crushed when the Taliban returned to power four years ago.
Since then, they have managed to forge a new path to self-reliance through sheer determination, harnessing the few resources still available to women to create their own businesses.
Although their businesses are still developing, they’ve already created opportunities for other Afghan women to earn, providing inspiration and hope in a country where those two things are sorely lacking.
In the four years since they regained control of Afghanistan, the Taliban have effectively erased women from public life. They have prohibited girls from attending schools and universities, banned women from working in government offices and NGOs, and even forbidden them from entering gyms and public parks. Despite the drastic narrowing of women’s life opportunities, a small number of them are harnessing technology to circumvent the enormous barriers to independence, mounting a resistance whose significance is hard to overstate.
crystal-covered handbag.
Four years ago, Nargis had just finished high school and was preparing for the university entrance exam to study psychology at Kabul University.
When the Taliban issued a decree barring women from attending universities, “it felt like everything was over,” she says. “I just read books and scrolled Instagram, but I felt like my life had stopped.” But as she scrolled, she saw women entrepreneurs from Iran and in a few cases Afghanistan marketing their wares, and it sparked an idea. “I thought, if they can do it, why can’t I?” she recalls.
That question became the driving force behind her online business. For two years, she researched what product to sell, how to market it, and how to attract customers. In October 2023, she launched her venture making and selling crystal-covered handbags, starting with capital of around 25,000 Afghanis (360 dollars).
It wasn’t easy. Sourcing raw materials from Kabul’s Mandawi market — traditionally a male-dominated space — was just one major challenge. She also had to import some supplies from neighbouring countries. “Some people would try to discourage me with condescending looks or comments like, ‘This work is not for girls.’ But I had made up my mind,” she says.
Today, Nargis has buyers not only in Afghanistan but also abroad, in Europe and the United States. “Customers from Germany and Canada message me to order different types of bags,” she says. “It’s an amazing feeling to be connected to the world from my home.”
Her business is now a team of 30, mostly girls who were denied an education. Nilab, 17, earns an income making bags and says working with Nargis gives her hope. “When I see her succeed despite all these problems, I tell myself, why not me?” she says.
The Taliban can’t compete with our dreams
Nahid was in her third year of law and political science at Parwan University when the Taliban ‘s restrictions ended her education, plunging her into a depression that lasted over a year.
“I felt all doors had closed on me,” she recalls. “I cried for days, thinking my life was over. Then one day I asked myself, how long am I going to live like this?”
Inspired by the colourful and ornate traditional dresses worn by her mother, Nahid set up a business making and selling women’s clothing for sale. She started in May 2024 and now works with four other women, stitching and embroidering clothes that blend traditional artistry with modern creativity.
Every day brings new challenges. Like Nargis, she has to go to the Mandawi market, where as a young woman she stands out, and has to contend with questions and disapproving looks.
One of the traditional clothes of Afghan women.
“I’ve fallen many times, but I kept going for the sake of my dreams. I didn’t want to feel again that everything was lost,” she says.
The two young women share the view that the attitude of Afghan society towards women entrepreneurs is one of the biggest barriers to success.
“Some people think women shouldn’t work, especially in traditional markets,” says Nahid. “But we’re trying to change — or at least soften — that view.”
A 2024 study by the UN Development Programme found women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan were displaying remarkable resilience in the face of challenges including discrimination, lack of access to finance, and even being unable to travel to markets without a male chaperone.
Both Nargis and Nahid are ambitious for their businesses and have international goals that they say social media can help them achieve. Nargis describes Instagram as “my window to the world” allowing her to connect with global customers, while Nahid says that “a smartphone and the internet are stronger than any barrier the Taliban can put in a woman’s way.”
Nahid’s goal is not just to earn money, but to introduce Afghan designs to the world, and she already has customers in Australia and Europe.
“The Taliban can’t block our minds or our ability to dream,” she says with a smile. “I had a smartphone, and that was enough to start.”
