By: Elyas Ahmadi
Zarghuna spends hours every day begging on the streets to feed her children in Ghazni city. She worked as a maid in a house for about two years after her husband, a member of the former government’s forces, was killed in a Taliban attack in March 2017 in western Kabul.
Zarghuna lost her job when the family that hired her left Ghazni city three years ago, and she has been begging since then.
“This winter was one of the hardest winters of my life,” she said. “We had nothing to heat our house. My children got sick five times.”
She said she has four children, three lives with her, and one, girl is married.
She said she was only five when she lost her father and a brother during the civil war in the 1990s. An uncle, who raised her, married her off at age 17. She said her husband was killed in 2017.
“I haven’t seen a good day in my life,” Zarghuna, 35, said.
She said sometimes men harass her, offering money in exchange for sex.
“People are harassing me,” She said “I just wear a burqa so that no one knows out my age.”
Zarghuna, who is both the victim of war and poverty, lives in the Al-Biruni neighborhood of Ghazni city.
Zarghuna isn’t her real name. She spoke to us on the condition we don’t use her name.
The hunger crisis has worsened in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s victory. Millions of Afghans do not have enough to eat. The number of beggars have increased on the streets across the country.
Residents said more streets beggars are on the streets of Ghazni now compared to the past.
Zulaikha, 50, is another woman who suffers from asthma. But she has to beg to feed her family. She sits on a corner of the street in the Nawabad area, making between 50-150 Afghani (0.5$ to 1.7$) daily.
She said she got married, without knowing her future husband was handicapped.
“He could not work to feed the family,” she said about her husband.
“I had seven daughters. Three of them got married under 13,” She said, “Perhaps no mother is happy to let her daughters marry before puberty.”
“I do not know how many more years I can live, and until when should I suffer?” she added.
Bakhtawar, another 60-year-old female beggar, said her husband died of cancer many years ago.
“Even our relatives are awaiting our death,” she said.
