The Taliban destroyed my shops
My name is Zohra. I am 46 years old. My husband and I married in 1999 and we have four daughters and two sons. My husband was a construction engineer working in remote districts of northeastern Afghanistan. He constructed bridges, which the Taliban frequently destroyed. He and his colleagues rebuilt those bridges while facing constant accusations and threats from the Taliban, who labelled him a communist and an apostate.
My husband was dedicated to his work despite Taliban plots to kill him, including once placing a bomb on his car. In the summer of 2015, he was poisoned. His colleagues rushed him to a hospital, where he died. I was a widow with five young children, while also being five months pregnant.
My husband left me a piece of land in the city and a car. In the years since his death, I built several shops on that land, which I rent to provide for our children. Shortly after completing the shops, the Taliban returned to our area. They built roads, bulldozing my newly constructed shops without compensation or even an apology.
I am responsible for raising my six children. Life is extremely difficult, even more so under a government determined to confine women to their homes. During the Taliban’s three years and five months in power, I have endured more suffering than in my entire life previously.
I graduated high school in 1994 in a northeastern province and passed the university entrance exam to study natural sciences at Kabul University but my family prevented me from going to the capital city because of insecurity. Instead, I trained to be a teacher and taughter various subjects, including mathematics, at local schools.
After my husband’s death, I taught math during the day and sewed clothes at night. My eldest child, a 23-year-old daughter, graduated university. My second daughter had just begun university when the Taliban banned women from higher education. My third and fourth daughters cannot attend school due to Taliban restrictions, while my two youngest children are sons.
My teaching salary barely covers basic expenses, while sewing brings in little additional income. My husband’s employer provided no assistance while his family suggested I remarry and leave my children with them. I refused, choosing independence to ensure my children received an education.
Living as a single mother in Afghanistan is exceedingly tough. Once, when I had started teaching girls at home, a local mullah summoned me to the mosque and warned that teaching teenage girls violated Taliban decrees. I was only spared through the intervention of village elders.
In June 2021, two months before the Taliban takeover, I borrowed money from a bank to construct the shops. I had to repay 4,000 afghani a month but before I could complete those payments the Taliban demolished my shops. They neither compensated nor apologized. I did not complain because it felt pointless. Like others whose properties were destroyed by Taliban bulldozers, I accepted that we now lived under oppressive rulers who are indifferent to the needs of the people. My daughters are educated and capable, but every opportunity is closed to them. If we weren’t under Taliban rule, perhaps life wouldn’t be so unbearably difficult for women like me.
*Zohra is a pseudonym for a woman living in Afghanistan. This account of her life was written by Khadija Haidary.
