By Mehreen Rashidi
It’s been a struggle for Sediqa* to provide food for her four children for some years. But during Ramadan, it weighs on her more heavily when they sit down to eat after fasting for an entire day.
“The children have grown. They understand everything. I spend the whole day thinking about what to serve them for Iftar,” Sediqa said.
“Usually, it’s just bread and tea.”
The lack of food means there’s also often nothing to eat for the pre-dawn meal, sahari.
“Many times, they don’t even wake up for sahari. I know they have no appetite for bread and tea, or they’re worried that there won’t even be bread and tea on the table.”
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that one in three Afghans don’t know where their next meal will come from. It’s a statistic that isn’t just about hunger. The consequences ripple out across their lives.
For Sediqa and her family in the northern city Mazar-e-Sharif, it’s meant they take risks. Like her eldest son Yosef* who tried to cross into Iran without a visa to find work and was shot and wounded.
Yosuf* left school in grade 12 and headed to Iran to help support his family. His father Mohammad* is decades older than Sediqa and no longer earning an income.
Sediqa said Mohammad lost his job after the Taliban seized power in August 2021. He had been working in the coal mines of Dara-e-Suf in Samangan province. But Sediqa said that after the Taliban’s return, some mine owners left the country, some mines were taken control of by the Taliban, and others were heavily taxed by the de facto authorities. The instability saw thousands of miners lose their jobs, including Mohammad.
Since then, no one has taken on her husband as a laborer, Sediqa said.
“He has gone back to Dara-e-Suf several times, but no one accepted him. They say he’s too old and cannot work. Although he has aged, he has worked in the mines for years and has experience,” she said.
So her eldest Yosuf took it upon himself to help the family. He went once to the border of Iran through Nimruz province but was beaten by Iranian border guards so he turned back. But, desperation pushed him to try again.
On the second attempt, he was shot.
Sediqa said when she heard the news, her and her daughter went into shock. Sediqa screamed and fainted, while her daughter dropped the tea tray she was holding with glasses on it, and everything smashed.
Yousef told Sediqa that he was with a group of men attempting to cross into Iran under the darkness of night when a border guard opened fire. The group ran frantically in all directions, and in the chaos, a bullet struck Yosuf’s ankle. He lost consciousness and only awoke three days later.
“Those three days felt like three years,” Sediqa said. “When Yosuf was finally brought home by his friends, he was nothing but skin and bones. The bones of his legs had softened. He has stayed like that at home for a year.”
Since the Taliban takeover, unemployment has markedly increased with the weaker economy. Iran has become a key destination for Afghans seeking work, legally and illegally. But the crossing without a visa using a smuggler has huge risks attached with Iranian border guards cracking down on migrants by whatever means necessary.
The International Organization for Migration has said in a recent report that the highest registered death toll of Afghan migrants in the past year has occurred on the route from Afghanistan to Iran.
Because of the family’s lack of income, Yousef has not been able to get proper treatment.
“I only took him to the doctor twice. Apart from using Dettol and bandages, I couldn’t afford any medicine for him,” Sediqa said.
She said a doctor in Herat removed the bullet from her son’s foot, but his broken bones haven’t healed properly, and his foot is misaligned. She said it still causes him some pain, especially when it gets cold.
But it’s not just Yousef’s foot that has troubled Sediqa. His mental state has been affected by the trauma as well. She said he often has nightmares at night.
“That night at the border when he got shot, two or three others also got shot and killed. He was unconscious and the others thought he was dead too,” Sediqa said.
“He told me that when he regained consciousness in Nimruz [province], he was in a room with corpses. Most nights, he dreams of this scene and wakes up screaming.”
Nevertheless, her son has continued to search for work as well. During the past winter, he went to the coal mines in Dara-e-Suf. He found a job, but after three days his foot gave way. Sediqa said it was difficult for him to stand for long periods in the cold, and he returned home in severe pain.
Adding to their troubles, Sediqa’s daughter was engaged three years ago with the groom-to-be’s family paying Sediqa and Mohammad a dowry towards the marriage.
With no income for the family, Sediqa has slowly spent the money instead on basic household expenses. And now the groom’s family wants the wedding ceremony to take place.
Sediqa is perplexed about how to tell them that she hasn’t prepared anything.
“My husband became unemployed, and my son got shot and then lost his job. In these two or so years, with all our home expenses, where could I have found money?”
The WFP has estimated almost 16 million Afghans are currently facing crisis levels of food insecurity. It has called for US$670 million for the six months to June 2024 to try to stem the tide of acute malnutrition affecting 25 out of 34 provinces.
*Names are changed due to security reasons.
