By Azada Tran
It was getting dark in the crowded Pol-e Sokhta street of western Kabul, but Malalai*, with her wheelbarrow of ice creams, wouldn’t return to her lonely home just yet. She hoped to make at least one more sale.
She doesn’t like the job, but there are few options open to her.
The 38-year-old said spending long hours on the streets in the harsh heat is challenging, but it’s nothing compared to the daily abuse she receives as a woman.
“I have no choice but to endure. People should understand that a woman would never do this unless forced to,” Malalai said.
She said she’s already experienced unimaginable violence in her life.
These days, she also bears the violence of poverty, walking a wheelbarrow along Kabul’s streets for the past month to sell goods from early morning until dusk.
The former member of the Afghan National Security Forces shows the documents confirming her military service from when she joined the army in 2019.
She reminisces about what life would have been like if the Taliban had not returned to power.
“I wouldn’t have had financial worries. I could have provided for my daughter’s needs without any concerns,” she said of her monthly army salary of 16,000 afghanis (around US$230).
Scorn and mockery in the streets of Kabul
Despite a thick skin from years of struggle, Malalai said the past month as a street vendor has rattled her with the abuse she receives, most of it simply for being a woman.
“One day, I paused with my wheelbarrow because of hunger and the heat. Suddenly, an elderly man from some nearby vendors attacked me, pushing me to the ground and injuring me. He was saying, ‘What’s a woman doing here? Why don’t you stay home? You’re trying to take away all the men’s jobs,’” Malalai said.
She notices young boys and men frequently taking videos and photos of her, often while mocking her and calling her names.
“Every day, as I roam with my wheelbarrow, I endure all kinds of slander. They call out, ‘Why isn’t your husband working? What man would even consider you if you don’t have a husband?”
The daily income of around 180 afghanis (US$2.50) is desperately needed and so she returns each day to the wheelbarrow – and the abuse. But it’s taking its toll.
“I often feel dizzy, especially in crowded areas like Darulaman, with the oppressive heat. Once, as my head was spinning, I sat on the ground. But when I regained my senses, I saw a boy recording me with a mocking smile,” she said.
Women working as vendors on the streets have reported abuse and challenges long before the Taliban took power due to social norms and traditional ideas about a woman’s place and value in society.
But since August 2021 after the country collapsed and much of the economy along with it, Taliban decrees banning women from most careers, studies and workplaces have seen more women take up selling wares, small-scale handicrafts, or simply begging in the markets and streets. Many report that they feel negative attitudes towards them have also intensified.
A recent UNICEF report found that 23.7 million people are suffering from poverty and are in need of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan. The majority of them are children and women.
Malalai is a mother of three but lives alone in a rented house.
“When you are poor, even your mother won’t like you,” she said briefly.
Her first husband was killed 11 years ago in a battle with the Taliban in Helmand province, just 15 days after he joined the Afghan army.
After his death, Malalai took her three young children to live with her mother in Kabul.
She worked in people’s homes to earn a living and put bread on the table, but it wasn’t enough. Soon, she married one of her daughter’s off at age 12 to provide for her and bring some money to the rest of the family.
In 2018, she sent her then six-year-old son to Herat with her husband’s brother for a family gathering and she hasn’t heard from her brother-in-law’s family since. She said her efforts to locate her son have yielded no results and she has no news of him.
Finally, her remaining daughter was married last August 2023 at age 16.
“As a former member of the former government’s military, I have feared the Taliban would take my daughter or even abduct me. I felt I had no choice but to force her to marry to protect her and ensure she had a better life,” Malalai said.
A violent first marriage from a young age
Malalai herself knows the pain that can emerge from a forced marriage, but felt she had little choice with her daughters.
Beyond the poverty that drove her decision, studies by human rights groups show it’s also an accepted tradition steeped in centuries of deep-rooted cultural and societal expectations.
But the prevalence of early forced marriages is reported to have increased under the Taliban’s de facto governance.
In Malalai’s case, she was forced into marriage aged 14 by her father to a man she’d never met. She learned while travelling with her new husband to Herat that he was already married.
She displays the scars on her neck and hands, recounting the violence she endured from him.
“A few days after our marriage, my husband started finding problems with everything. One day, he got angry at my cooking and dragged me to the corner of the house, tied a rope around my neck, suffocated me until I was almost unconscious, and then left as I bled from my mouth and dress,” she said.
“If I refused to comply with something he’d ask, he would gag my mouth with a cloth and beat me until I lost consciousness. There were times when I remained unconscious on the ground for days in a corner of the house, motionless, overwhelmed by the pain of my injuries, without water, bread, just enduring endless suffering.”
After three and a half years of marriage, she gave birth to a daughter.
She said that her husband went on to marry two more wives after her.
To find enough money to feed herself and her daughter, she used to work as a cook in her father-in-law’s guesthouse until her husband died in battle.
Forced to marry a Taliban police officer
After Malalai left her army job after the Taliban’s return to power, she found work at a female physical examination center, earning a monthly salary of 3,000 afghanis (US$42).
But the employment didn’t last. The center was eventually pressured by local Taliban members to replace her with a man, and Malalai was dismissed in July last year.
“The Taliban are depriving people of their livelihoods. By taking away my job, they took away my means of survival, so now I am left wandering, searching for a piece of bread,” she said.
A month later, she married off her remaining daughter.
But things were about ot get far worse.
After her daughter’s marriage, her home was robbed. She went to report it to the local Taliban police.
“The police station officer asked why I live alone,” she said.
After Malali explained her situation, the Taliban officer told her to marry him or to go to a safe house – except safe houses do not exist under Taliban rule.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has reported that instead of safe houses, the Taliban have been sending women at risk of violence to women’s prisons.
Women being threatened into marriage by Taliban authorities is not new and have been reported like this one from Deutsche Welle detailing how a woman from Uruzgan province was forced into marrying a Taliban member.
That was how on October 2, Malalai found herself being forced to marry a second time.
“I had no choice. Instead of seeking refuge in a “safe house”, I found myself becoming a second wife out of necessity, reluctantly accepting it,” she said.
“Part of me was hopeful, envisioning a better life, feeling as though I had escaped complete destitution to find a morsel of bread.”
Jamil*, 43, was a witness of Malalai’s marriage to the Taliban member.
“She was married off to this Mujahid (fighter) out of desperation. She hoped her life would improve a little and that she could escape loneliness and wandering,” Jamil said.
But then Malalai’s husband disappeared.
Completely alone without support
“They lived together for a few months, but now it’s been six months since her husband disappeared, and so this woman, works from morning to night just to earn a bite of bread,” Jamil said.
Malalai said that her husband resigned from the Taliban and went to Iran for work. However, he has been missing ever since, and she has had no contact with him.
With a family that cannot support her and the Taliban’s rules that prevent her from travelling and working, Malalai is stuck in Kabul, trying to make the most of what she has.
“My husband has disappeared. My sisters won’t allow me to stay in their homes, and my daughters don’t have the autonomy to take me in when I have nothing to eat at home. The costs of rent, water, and electricity have forced me to start selling ice cream.”
*Names have been changed for security reasons.
