By: Somaya Mandgar
Fatima Iltaf is determined to make it as a money transfer agent, not only for her livelihood, but also to shatter the extreme stereotypes and gender barriers the Taliban has imposed on her and her culture.
The 28-year-old started her business as a money transfer agent two months ago, working from her new home in Iran. She has executed 60 money transfers so far, earning about five million Iranian tomans (US$400).
“I started this work to prove to the world that wherever we are in the world, we women can work and have independence,” she tells Rukhshana Media by phone. “Being homeless, being a housewife, or having children doesn’t stop us. We can also have a job in addition to our daily, regular work (at home).”
Money transfers to Afghanistan are mostly done through an informal system called hawala. Fatima carries out her remittance business via mobile phone and bank teller. Most of her customers are women and girls.
When Fatima first started, many people around her criticized her for choosing this job – and underestimated her, she says. But she is determined to make her business succeed in the male-dominated sector as part of her struggle against the Taliban’s restrictions on women.
She describes the day the Taliban entered Kabul on August 15 2021 as the most bitter day of her life. Ultimately, the Taliban attack on women’s rights would prove too much for her and she left her beloved Afghanistan for Iran.
A difficult but necessary choice
At the time of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, Fatima was a teacher in a public school and provided for her family of six from that income. But when she lost her job due to a Taliban decree closing schools, she felt a sense of hopelessness that was devastating.
“In a vacuum, in an abyss, in a blind spot that could not be escaped. A situation that we had no desire to continue living,” she says, describing how she felt with each passing day the Taliban were in power. “Not only me but all my colleagues, friends, and acquaintances were in this situation.”
While many hoped in the early days of the Taliban’s return that the extremists had changed, Fatima says that with time it became clear the group was not what they promised. Persistent restrictions on women have only become more intense, and violence against women, unexplained detentions by Taliban of women, and mysterious deaths of women appear to be on the rise.
Fatima says this forced her into the difficult decision to leave Afghanistan. “I had done artistic-cultural and philanthropic works with great enthusiasm, I had worked in organizations and libraries. I had taught in schools for years, and my desire to serve my country and people was the next level, but I could no longer stay there. I had to decide to leave my country and take the path of emigration.”
Fatima, her husband and two daughters managed to get visas to live in Iran this year. But they have faced challenges in their host country also.
Challenges of migrating
Iran hosts millions of Afghan immigrants and refugees. While accurate records are not available, the Islamic Republic newspaper, says field statistics show there are 8 million Afghans in Iran, and every day about 10,000 more people enter Iran’s borders both illegally and legally.
Meanwhile Donya-e-Eqtesad, an Iranian daily newspaper, wrote that according to an International Organization for Migration report in 2021 and 2022, 3.6 million Afghans migrated to other countries with 70 percent of them going to Iran.
Fatima feels there is a sense of resentment in Iran levelled at the immigrants, and she has experienced the harassment that stems from that. Social humiliation, bigotry, and mistreatment of Afghans have been one of her bitter daily experiences in this country.
“Bread, water, services, and expenses for which we pay a huge amount of money as if we earn them by force from the mouths and tables of the Iranian people,” she says. “To this extent, we are seen with a bad view.”
Fatima faced a painful choice: continue living with the debilitating discrimination in Iran, or live in despair in Afghanistan. She decided to stay in Iran and rebuild her life, despite feeling like she was not welcome. “I began looking for a job that would be useful to my fellow compatriots in the country I migrated to, and to be able to stand on my own feet,” she says. “So, I decided to set up a money transfer business.”
According to Fatima, the Taliban’s best efforts to stamp out women from public life and destroy any sense of social wellbeing among them, women have managed to stay strong.
She says technology has made women’s efforts more viable, even in the face of such extreme restrictions. “I ask all the heroic women of my country not to give in to the conditions and start many social jobs,” she says. “Using technology, science and their skills, they can turn limitations into opportunities.”
