By: Ellaha Rasa
A cool wind blows through the city of Herat. It’s mid-autumn and dozens of women peddlers are sitting in the sun against one of the walls of a Herat mosque. Second-hand clothes are spread on the ground to present to prospective buyers passing by. But sales are sluggish. The story of these women is all the same: there is no work and it is impossible to have enough to eat.
After the Taliban regained power, the already-weak economy imploded and poverty spread. The number of peddlers in Herat city has noticeably increased, including of women.
Fereba, 45, turned to street peddling after August 15 last year when things seemed to get acutely worse. She says these days she is lucky to earn 150 afghanis a day, or less than two dollars.
“Some days people passing by give us a loaf of dry bread as alms and some days they give us leftover food as alms,” Feraba says, while busy rearranging the second-hand clothes that were messed up by a curious customer. “My rent costs 3500 afghanis a month, and every four months I have to pay a 2000 afghanis for water and electricity.”
Fereba has two daughters and five sons. Three of her sons are apprentices in a car repair shop instead of attending school. According to their mother, they earn 250 afghanis a week to contribute to the family costs. But if they have any extra costs, they can rarely afford it. Not even medicine.
“I had a headache all night last night. It lasted until the morning and there was no medicine to take at home,” she says.
“I do not willingly come to the side of the road to sell old clothes. But if I don’t, my children will starve.”
The peddlers also have to deal with harassment. They say that they have to beg the Taliban municipality every day to not disturb them and let them sell their wares in peace. Taliban municipal employees in Herat have ordered women peddlers to pack up their makeshift market from the side of the wall of Herat’s grand mosque.
But as Fereba says, if they aren’t allowed to sell, her children will not even have bread to eat anymore.
“We are sitting in a corner on this side of the road or on the other side of the road and we cannot do any other work,” she says. “We are happy to sell second-hand dresses, but the municipal employees told us to leave here.”
Fereba says her life was relatively better before the collapse of the Ghani government and the Taliban took over. But now with each passing day it becomes more difficult to find enough money for bread. She lives in Shalbafaan area of Herat city. Generally she will walk the distance from her house to where she sells the clothes as she cannot afford transport.
Fereba’s husband also has a second wife with whom he has three more children. He has heart disease but they did not have money for his treatment. Her husband left with his second family and immigrated to Iran.
Fatima, 60, lives with her older husband and two daughters. These days, Fatima is the only one who is earning money to feed the family of four.
“My two other children (sons) are married and cannot help us,” she says.
“I have to come and sit on the side of the road and sell old and second-hand clothes. I hardly earn money – just enough for two dry loaves of bread. If I sell these old clothes, we have bread at home. If I don’t sell, there is no bread to eat.”
Fatima is seriously ill and has lost sight in one eye but does not have enough money to treat it.
“I had one eye operation and it’s better now. But I didn’t have money for the operation of my other eye and now I am blind,” Fatima says. “My legs and waist are numb and it is very difficult for me to work at this age,” she adds.
Fatima grew up poor and laments that she has never seen a happy day in her life. It’s been plagued by war or by poverty, and day and night has been a struggle just for bread.
Sitting next to Fatima is Shiringul, another street peddler. She is one of the dozens of Herati women taking to street-selling in the face of poverty. Her husband was killed in a traffic accident in Iran and she is the sole breadwinner of her family of five. She says if she doesn’t work for a day, they all go to bed hungry at night.
“It is very difficult to find money now. Whatever God sends in a day, it will reach us. I pay 3000 afghanis for rent per month. We try our best not to use our electricity, but we still consume a lot and every four months we pay between 1500 to 2000 afghanis for electricity and water,” she says.
The arrival of the cold season is an approaching nightmare situation for women in Shiringul’s situation. Aid organizations have warned of a difficult winter ahead due to the expansion of poverty.
Shiringul says they are already worried about what to do in winter and says their dream is simply to have enough “dry bread”.
According to the UNHCR, more than half of the population of Afghanistan faces food insecurity and 25 million people live in poverty. International institutions, including the Red Cross, have warned about the increase in poverty in Afghanistan.
