Online commerce in Afghanistan: How women eke out a living
Maryam sits behind her desk in a small room in Kabul, staring at her phone. Selling hygiene and cosmetic products online has been her only source of income for the past eight months.
Before the Taliban came to power, 30-year-old Maryam was a lawyer at a local firm. Her salary allowed her to build an independent and comfortable life for herself and her son. But when the Taliban imposed strict restrictions on women, her world turned upside down. Maryam lost her job overnight.
She searched for work for two years but none of her efforts bore fruit. She became financially dependent on her brothers, relying on them for even the smallest purchase, such as buying a simple paracetamol tablet. Life had become bitter and suffocating.
Just when everything seemed hopeless, a door of opportunity opened for Maryam. Her brother informed her of an online work opportunity for women. An Iranian company selling hygiene and cosmetic products had online jobs for women who were not allowed to work outside their homes.
To start, Maryam needed to send the company a capital amount of 9,000 afghani. She borrowed the amount from her brother. After that, she underwent two months of online training to learn the basics of online buying and selling. She’s been working for the past three months, selling cosmetic and hygiene products through social media. “Currently, I earn 3,000 to 3,500 afghani per month,” she tells Zan Times, after dealing with challenges like high internet costs and the lack of a digital banking system.
Although this income does not cover all the living expenses for her and her son, Maryam hopes she will be able to make enough as her customer base grows.
Maryam is part of a new female cohort making a living online. Like her, many Afghan women and girls turned to online commerce after the Taliban shut down many work options for women. Some, like Maryam, sell cosmetics and clothing online. Zohal was in the 11th grade when girls’ schools were shut down. She wanted to switch to working online selling hygiene products but struggled to find the investment capital necessary.
“It was difficult to get the approval of my father and family. After a few weeks of crying and pleading, I managed to borrow some money from my father, and my mother covered the rest through a women’s loan group that pooled money monthly,” Zohal tells Zan Times.
The resident of Balkh has been working online for a year and a half. “My work is on social media. I advertise my products there and spend hours explaining how to use them to customers until they are convinced and make a purchase. In the first few months, I didn’t earn anything, but now I make 6,000 to 7,000 afghani per month. Some months, I’ve even sold up to 10,000 afghani worth of products,” she explains.
Nahid used to spend half of her day working in a tailoring workshop in Balkh province and the other half making bolani (an Afghan flatbread) for a restaurant before the Taliban came to power. The 20-year-old lost both jobs under the new regime. “We are a family of six. I lost my father when I was a child, and my mother is the head of the family. Before the Taliban, our situation was better because my sisters and I could work alongside our mother. But with the Taliban taking power, everything changed,” she says.
Like Maryam and Zohal, Nahid learned about the opportunity to sell hygiene and cosmetic products online through a friend: “I was able to introduce many girls to online work. Because I referred new people, the company gave me a bonus, and now I earn 5,000 to 6,000 per month.”
Challenges Ahead
Despite the relative success of some individuals in online sales, many other women have faced significant difficulties in their online ventures. Tahera, a 32-year-old from Herat, started her online business with a 30,000-afghani investment but was unable to attract enough customers, and eventually had to halt her business. “I’ve stopped for some time now because, on one hand, the cost of the internet is high, and on the other hand, customers don’t trust online purchases,” she tells Zan Times. “Some of my cosmetic products are still sitting in a corner of my house, unsold.”
Another woman who has struggled to transition to online work is Fakhria, a 33-year-old who used to run a tailoring workshop in Balkh. She shifted to online work after strict restrictions were imposed on women’s employment. She sells handmade clothes but says that the lack of access to the internet and smartphones among the people of Afghanistan makes online sales and market creation difficult. In addition, she says that the Taliban continuously harass women entrepreneurs, and that harassment even extends to online activities. In addition, the families of women entrepreneurs face security and social pressures due to Taliban policies.
The major obstacles to the success of women working in online markets include the lack of quality internet, the absence of digital banking systems, the public’s unfamiliarity with online shopping and markets, and high communication costs. Tamanna Faryar, an economist, tells Zan Times, “Online work helps women achieve financial independence, but it also comes with many challenges, including the lack of consumer familiarity and trust in the online market.”
Despite these challenges, Faryar says that online businesses improve women’s skills in marketing and help them financially: “These activities enable women to play a greater role in the family and community economy.”
Names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees and writer. Sara Hosseini is the pseudonym of a freelance journalist in Afghanistan.