KABUL, Jan 28 (IPS) – Young women in the Afghan capital Kabul are trying out unfamiliar tasks of embroidery, tailoring and beading design at market stalls. Many would have instead had to sit at a desk writing computer software or reporting news, the fields for which they had been trained.
Since the return of the Taliban in 2021, highly educated women have been removed from their official positions and excluded from much of the formal workforce, forcing them to take jobs unrelated to their field of training in order to cope with economic hardship and avoid the mental pressure of unemployment.
Professional opportunities for women are drastically limited. Almost all women are not allowed to work in offices, in the media and in other areas related to their education.
Lida, (a pseudonym) a computer science graduate, previously earned a good salary as an IT officer at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, a job she held for more than six years. She now lives in the southeast of Kabul, works as a tailor and runs a small shop. Her late husband, who worked for the Ministry of Rural Development, was killed in a bomb attack in Kabul ten years ago.
Lida, along with her five children, now shares a house with her brother’s family and says she is in financial difficulties. To make ends meet, she has sent one of her sons to sell plastic bags on the street. Her youngest son is still in school. Her daughter’s education has been suspended following the Taliban’s edicts.
“When the Taliban came back to power, I was forced to quit my job,” says Lida, “and I have not been able to find a job within my profession for the past four years and therefore had no choice but to work as a shop assistant.”
Many women are flocking to Kabul’s informal sectorbut it offers limited options, crowding them into storeswhich only sells women’s clothing and cosmetics and serves mainly female customers.
The Taliban does not directly grant work permits to women to operate the stores. Instead, a male relative or another male must first obtain the work permit for the store. Only then can women work as a salesperson or assistant in the store and receive a salary or commission based on an agreed arrangement.
“Working in a tailor shop is very difficult and frustrating,” Lida complains, adding: “I wish I could at least work in a computer shop related to my field.”
Mursal, (a pseudonym) 27, a journalism graduate, has suffered a similar fate. She worked as a reporter for various media for eight years and, before the Taliban returned, worked at an interest group for journalists, where she enjoyed a good income and good benefits.
Mursal, like dozens of other educated women, has become a shopkeeper. Private media outlets do not have enough capacity to absorb many women, so instead of reporting the news, she now sells traditional Afghan clothing and products aimed at women.
Mursal expressed her frustrations, saying she initially felt “very undervalued.” “People looked at us strangely and besides, my family wasn’t very happy with the job I was doing.” It is unusual for women to run shops in Afghanistan,
Mursal sells women’s clothing in southwest Kabul, where she lives with her parents, both former government officials who are now unemployed.
“I have six sisters and one brother,” says Mursal, adding, “I can’t get married until they get back on their feet because I am responsible for all of them.” Her brother is only ten years old. Mursal earns about ten thousand Afghanis (127 euros) a month from selling in the store, which is barely enough for the family to make ends meet.
Yet the Taliban’s moral police do not give women any breathing space in the increasingly precarious employment situation. According to Mursal, officials from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice visit their shops three times a week to enforce the rule of wearing masks all day, which they find suffocating. They are also forced to hide or remove images from women’s nightwear.
“If the sleepwear is hidden, how will customers know which or what to buy?” she points out.
Defiance in the face of adversity
While the women worry about the likelihood that years of academic effort will be wasted, they have nevertheless turned their situation as shopkeepers into a form of resistance against the Taliban’s violations of their rights.
Forced to run shops to support their families, they may be happy to earn a little income, but their deeper pain comes from knowing that their skills and dreams in their chosen profession remain unused.
Yet it is a testament to their resilience in the face of severe restrictions imposed by the Taliban that they have readily taken on often undesirable jobs in the informal sector simply to survive and support their families.
The shift isn’t just about making a living; it is a silent resistance. By taking on these roles, Afghan women are sending a clear message that they will not remain silent and wiped out from society.
Even when the doors in their profession are closed to them, they find ways to stay active, contribute and make a difference. They show that even a small opportunity can be turned into meaningful participation, proving that Afghan women will continue to fight for their rights in any way they can.
Their resilience is a reminder that the Taliban’s limitations may limit opportunities, but they cannot take away the ambition and determination to bring about change.
By taking on these jobs, they ensure their presence is felt in society and stand strong against the Taliban, who seek to erase them from public life. Afghan women refuse to remain silent. They make it clear that Afghan women will not disappear, they insist on being seen, heard and counted.
© Inter Press Service (20260128134649) — All rights reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service
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