Eid al-Fitr holds deep significance for Muslims after the holy days of Ramadan. With the month-long observation of spiritual renewal marked by the practice of fasting over, the first day of Eid is one of celebration and joy that is in turn marked by sharing feasts of food and blessings with loved ones. But for many Afghans, the first day of Eid al-Fitr was instead a day of hunger and survival.
The lens of a Rukhshana Media reporter captured some of the struggles of people in Kabul, with some working for meager sums of money and begging for the simple comfort of some bread.
With poverty spreading throughout Afghanistan under the shadow of a de facto Taliban government, the grip of economic hardship and food shortages is affecting more and more people.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has estimated a staggering 28 million people in Afghanistan find themselves in dire need of urgent humanitarian aid. This photo essay puts faces and pictures to some of what these people experienced on the first day of Eid.
A woman begging at Shohaday-e-Maaref in west Kabul. Though she did not say what her name was, there was a sadness in her speech that spoke a lot about her pain. Brothers Ali Khan, 12 and Ali Zafar, 11, collecting plastic waste to sell to try and help their family. They sell 35 afghanis per kg. “We give the money to our mother,” they said. Two children collecting plastic waste. Zahra, 12, is a fifth-grade student at Sorkhabad school at the Omid-e-Sabz township of west Kabul. She says that due to her family’s situation, she works by fetching water in the hills of Qorigh Mtn during Eid to sell it.Hussain, 12, selling water to people who come to the cemetery.Hussain’s friendsOne of Hussain’s friends fetching water to the people at the top of the hill so they can use it for gravesHussain Ali, 36, is begging for food. He lives alone after his parents died three years ago and the rest of his family are not in contact with him. He lost his legs while he was a member of the Afghan National Army on duty in Kunar province. He has had no income since the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.The old man is out looking for work with his wheelbarrow on the first day of the Eid holiday in the hope of earning some money for food. He was about to say his name when he became overcome with emotion and signalled that he couldn’t speak.The 65-year-old man says that he is a porter and is only thinking about what work he can do to keep his family of six from starving to death. He says he went to Cinema-ye-Pamir on the First day of Eid on Friday, but he earned zero money
