Women find new paths from home to entrepreneurship
Amena was a midwife in one of Afghanistan’s central provinces before the Taliban took power. Earning a salary of 13,000 afghani a month, she had a decent life. But Amena lost her job and stayed home after the Taliban’s December 2022 ban on women working with foreign organizations.
Amena sought a new way to earn income and help other women. After a friend told her of a nearby garden available to rent, she had an idea: Why not turn this outdoor area into a space for women to relax and work?
In a phone interview with Zan Times, the 28-year-old explains, “Seeing this garden gave me the idea of turning it into a recreational area where women and families could feel safe and peaceful. That inspired me to rent it.”
Amena needed 120,000 afghani to rent the space and decided to borrow the amount from a bank with her husband’s help. She opened her new venture seven months ago, and has dedicated part of the garden to a women-only restaurant that employs eight women. As well, it has 16 small stalls offering women’s local products and handicrafts, including traditional clothing, dairy products, and other essentials.
The garden is open to women seven days a week, Amena says. “We’re active daily, but on Thursdays and Fridays, many customers, including foreign tourists, visit this restaurant and recreational park. Women, in particular, are happy to come here and feel a sense of joy,” she explains.
Though strict Taliban regulations have sharply limited women’s access to public life and economic resources, women like Amena continue to find alternative ways to work and support themselves and others. In April 2024, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released a report titled “Listening to women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan: Their struggle and resilience,” which emphasized the role of entrepreneurship in supporting women-led families.
Still, female entrepreneurship under Taliban rule is mired with challenges. Amena worries that the Taliban will suddenly decide to exclude women from the garden: “I fear the day the Taliban might shut this garden to women, preventing them from coming here. But I hope that those motivated to pursue entrepreneurship in such conditions receive support.”
During the last three years, the space for women to work and participate in society has systematically shrunk, making it uncertain whether even the minimal opportunities currently available will remain in the coming months. Last summer, the Taliban closed women’s beauty salons and banned women from working in that profession. In some provinces, businesses specifically catering to women, including female tailoring shops, have been shut. According to UN estimates, the Taliban’s ban on women’s employment costs Afghanistan’s economy more than US$1 billion annually. This lack of income affects society as a whole, but the first victims of the Taliban’s anti-women policies are the women themselves, and families headed by women.
In a southern province, Sahar worries about the potential closure of the handicrafts workshop that the 45-year-old established 10 years ago. Currently, her workshop employs 20 women, including girls who were forced to abandon their education. They work on carpet weaving, leather crafting, and tailoring. In a phone interview with Zan Times, Sahar shares that she and her colleagues are apprehensive about the future: “We fear that one day the doors of this workshop will be closed on us. Even when people from NGOs visit here, they come and go in secrecy. My colleagues and I worry about whether we will be able to continue working.”
A while ago, the Taliban arrested and beat a family member due to her workshop’s activities. “The Taliban thought the workshop was engaged in illegal activities,” she explains. “But after realizing it was exclusively for women, they allowed it to continue, with the condition that men and women must not work together. So, we’ve created an all-female workspace, but we worry they might still find an excuse to shut us down.”
Sahar started her business in 2014 with a US$500 investment and has earned a steady income from the workshop during the past decade. However, her workshop’s business has slowed after the Taliban returned to power. And that has reduced her income. Today, Sahar faces numerous challenges, such as her inability to purchase materials herself. Instead, she must rely on the help of male family members.
The UNDP report confirms that Afghan women entrepreneurs face a range of challenges and high costs in running their businesses. Growing discrimination and operational restrictions, along with a severely weakened financial system, have resulted in 41 percent of the 3,100 women interviewed in the report becoming indebted due to entrepreneurship. Nearly three-quarters of these women reported severe restrictions on women’s movement, with the requirement for a mahram as one of the biggest obstacles.
Malika, an online school teacher who has experience in business, says that the women who are still able to generate work opportunities worry that Taliban obstacles mean they will eventually be confined to their homes. Right now, she’s unable to register her small jam-making business. “I applied for a business license, but I was told that no woman could get one. Currently, no institution permits women to start an official business. When a license can’t be issued under a woman’s name, how can we have hope for the future?” she worries, adding, “If restrictions are not lifted and women are not granted the freedom needed for economic and social activities, all efforts of women entrepreneurs will eventually hit a dead end.”
Despite all these challenges, women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan continue to push forward and, with creativity and resilience, are finding ways to sustain their work and lives under harsh conditions and restrictive laws. Although their future is uncertain, these women stand at the forefront and are determined to resist and fight for their rights and freedoms.
Names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees and writer.
