By Ellaha Rasa
It was a five-word text that threatened to ruin Maniza Hashemi’s life. “Don’t come to work again”.
It was the first day after a Taliban decree in December banning women from working in foreign and domestic NGOs. Manizha’s employer later rang her to explain they had no choice.
‘They called us from the office and apologized that in the new project, men will be hired instead of us women,” Manizha said.
It was a bitter career blow for the 30-year-old who had studied law and political science from a private university in Herat and had worked for ten years for aid groups ranging from the Red Crescent to the World Food Organization.
But the loss of her salary of 26,000 Afghanis, an amount equal to $305 USD a month was an even crueler blow for her family of five who relied on her for their livelihood.
The decree from the Taliban’s Ministry of Economy was roundly condemned by the UN Security Council and the Foreign Ministers of several Western countries. But the Taliban ignored their pleas to reverse the decision.
After losing her savings, and seeing no prospect of the Taliban relenting, Manizha decided to take her life in a radically different direction. With her mother, two sisters and sisters-in-law, she started a home kitchen.
This group of six women spend hours in the kitchen creatively cooking popular “indulgence foods” such as Mantoo, Ashak, Aykhanoom, Bolani and Samosa.
The kitchen began in the month of Ramadan this year and has been operating for about four months. Manizha uses social media to attract customers and delivers orders via courier directly to customer’s homes. She has also managed to attract the custom of a number of restaurants and cooks delicious food for them.
The idea of starting a kitchen began in Manizha’s school days as she has always been a great cook, with friends and family praising her food and she often cooked at family gatherings.
In addition to providing online food services, Manizha has participated in two exhibitions, “Afghan Lapis” and “Shokoh-e-Eid”. These events have helped to give her business a boost.
Even so, the 12,000 Afghani, an amount equal to $140 USD a month earned from the business however is barely enough to sustain their lives.
The Taliban have imposed multiple restrictions on women and enforced then ruthlessly, Richard Bennet, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, says at least 50 women have received restraining orders.
These restrictions have made many women stay at home or caused problems for female employees. According to a source from the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Taliban the latest order of the Taliban closing women’s beauty salons will result in about 60,000 women becoming unemployed.
Ziba Nabizada is the mother of three sons and two daughters and lives in the centre of Herat city. Her husband is unemployed and stays at home and she is the breadwinner of her family of six.
For the past two years she has walked 10 kilometers to her sandwich shop in the Maidanbar station located on Asia Kolukhi road to earn about 200 afghanis ($2.3 USD) a day.
Before the fall of the government to the Taliban, Ziba managed her shop and served all kinds of Falafel sandwiches, grilled chicken, fish, liver and native dough to her customers. Now she has had to employ a male to serve food in her shop as the Taliban will not allow her to work due to the number of men frequenting the Maidanbar area. She must therefore divide her earnings with her employee after she pays the shop rent, water and electricity.
Many women such as Manizha and Ziba are looking at alternative options so that they do not become isolated as they were during the first period of Taliban rule in the 1990s. They are taking the initiative and setting up employment opportunities so they may still play a role in society. As Manizha says “We are trying in every way to do an activity at home and be able to make a living and not give in”.
Her father, who used to be an army officer, has diabetes and is paralyzed in both legs. Both her brothers live separately
Ms. Adiba Waziri, the director of the Western Zone Women’s Chamber of Commerce in Herat, also says women’s participation in exhibitions is effective for marketing and promoting their work. According to her, women can attract customers by participating in exhibitions and presenting their products.
