By Zabi Balkhi
She spends her days checking messages on social media. Sometimes she goes to Facebook, sometimes WhatsApp and sometimes Instagram to get a new order. Then she dispatches the order directly to the customer.
It has been a year since Mahbooba Dehati started her online cosmetics business in Mazar-i-Sharif. And it’s been a big change from what she did before.
The 24-year-old graduated in midwifery from Kabul University and worked as a midwife in several clinics and private hospitals in Mazar-e-Sharif before Taliban restrictions started making it almost impossible for women to work.
“All doors are closed to us,” Mahbooba says. “When I saw how jobs for girls and women were shrinking, it motivated me to find something I could do easily from home and still earn money.”
Online business appears to flourished in Mazar-i-Sharif and other parts of Balkh province since the Taliban seized power. There are no official statistics, but several women Rukhshana Media spoke to who run businesses from home say online work has boomed. The reason: it’s a way to bypass Taliban restrictions.
Mahboobab started her online business with a friend who invested 4,000 Afghanis. Now she receives up to six orders a day and her income has reached 20,000 afghanis per month, equivalent to around $235 USD.
Her happiness and satisfaction show on her face. She buys cosmetics and health products online from an Iranian company online that transports them to Mazar-i-Sharif in transit cars. She says at least 20 other women earn money through this online work.
“I offer work to everyone who buys the product. Many women are unemployed now so they quickly accept and start an online business,” she says.
The UN Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan, Richard Bennett reported recently that the Taliban has issued some 50 restrictive orders against women and girls, including on education, work, travel and women’s social speech.
But social media allows women to buy and sell online simply. Product images are posted on the seller’s Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram groups. Followers see, like and place orders.
The Ministry of Communications of the former government estimated about 10 million people had access to the Internet and 3.2 million people use social media users. It’s not known how this has changed under the Taliban.
Kawsar Sadeqi, 17, a first semester student in a private institution in Mazar-e-Sharif, is another online seller.
She has been running an online handicraft business for three months. She puts her products on her Instagram page and WhatsApp groups and takes orders from her customers, then delivers for free.
She sells beauty accessories like tiaras, crystal bows, beaded necklaces, and artificial flowers in the online market.
Kawsar says she used to make artificial flowers and handicrafts for shops in Mazar-e-Sharif. When the Taliban brought in restrictions, she decided to become independent and work online. “Now I work from home. It’s just not economical for us to rent a shop, you have to pay too much money.”
Kawsar started her work online with a capital of 60,000 Afghanis (around $700 USD). She says her customers are mostly shopkeepers, tailors and hairdressers. (That may change: the Taliban has just issued an order to close women’s beauty salons in Afghanistan, which could make thousands of women unemployed.)
At least 10 other women work with Kawsar.
“Most were teachers in schools. But after girl’s schools were closed they had to turn to another job,” Kawsar says. “So they’re working with me online. There are also girls who’ve chosen to work because the schools were closed to them.”
Kawsar says these girls were trained for two months and now earn money by making handicrafts and selling them. “We give them materials, they take them to their homes and prepare the items we order,” she says. “Depending on the price of the equipment, they take a percentage. For example, if a crown cost 600 afghanis (around $7 USD), we will pay them 100 afghanis ($1.17 USD).”
Online business in Afghanistan has its challenges. Only a small percentage of people have bank accounts. And false orders are common.
“Sometimes the customer plays with us,” Kawsar says. “They finalize the price and when we try to send it, they disappear. Or sometimes they give the wrong address and we get harassed when we deliver.”
Hadia Anwari, 20 is another girl in Balkh province who has turned to online business. She also sells cosmetics online, connecting with her customers through social media.
She’s been working as teacher in a private primary school in Mazar-i-Sharif for two years but started her online business four months ago. “Teaching is not a permanent job for me,” says Hadia. “Because the situation has so tenuous for women I could lose my job any day. Nothing is stable.”
Hadia started with an investment of 10,000 Afghanis, equivalent to around $117 USD. Like Mahbooba, she buys the product from an Iranian company and sells it to her customers at a higher price.
Before the Taliban barred women from universities, she was in the third semester of the Faculty of Medicine at one of the city’s private universities. She was devastated, but determined to not give in.
“I would like to be self-sufficient and have financial independence, it doesn’t matter whether online or in person,” she says. “I wanted to study medicine, but I can move forward in another way and become a successful business professional.”
“I have already achieved my dream to some extent, because we had a good income in these four months and I will work even harder to achieve my dream,” she adds.
Online business; new and challenged
Faisal Karimi, a university professor and online media researcher says the nascent online business in Afghanistan faces many obstacles and challenges. It lacks the industry standards that define online business elsewhere.
“The definition of online business means that there is a platform, there is a standard transmission system, support from the customer,” he says. “It is possible to return the goods and return the money.”
In Afghanistan, there is limited internet access, poor infrastructure, undeveloped electronic banking and a lack of laws and regulations. That brings the risk of profiteering and fraud.
“There is no safe and standard system for transporting goods to people’s homes. For example, there is no formal address system in Afghanistan,” he says.
Even so, Karimi believes what the girls and women are trying to do is enormously important for themselves and their families.
The boom in online business shows that women will not accept the Taliban’s restrictions and will fight its campaign to make them leave the workforce and stay at home.
