in Afghanistan, the despair of women deprived of their work by the Taliban

The story of Maryam* is that of a success story Afghan woman who began in 2018 when she took over a small farm on her own in the suburbs of Kabul. She plants several varieties of flowers there to make handmade soaps. “We have nine kinds of soaps: cucumber, cumin, rose, lavender, saffron, aloe vera. We had planted flowers to use them in the soaps,” she lists proudly. Maryam hires staff, only women, to make her organic products by hand. His small business is growing rapidly, as there is no equivalent in Afghanistan.

>> Afghanistan: the Taliban organize “the oppression of women through inaction”, analyzes a political scientist

Then comes August 15, 2021. The Taliban regain power in Afghanistan and women are again prohibited from working. Maryam’s life changes: “During these six months I was very depressed. You have seen all the medication I have. Sometimes I cry. I don’t like talking to other people because I have depression. Why? Because I was running a business. I created jobs for women. I got an award for it and now I’m a housewife.”

“What should I do? Die? Stay at home doing nothing?”

Maryam, former entrepreneur

at franceinfo

Before the fall of the government, Leila, 23, was a journalist for a television channel created under the former Parliament. Today, she no longer works. Afghan women are excluded from public employment where they were widely represented but also other economic and political sectors where they had made a place for themselves. “When the Taliban came, as the TV was government, they didn’t allow us to come back, she says. My life before the Taliban was really beautiful.”

“I was going to exercise in a club, I was taking dance lessons. Now I’m at home, I can’t work. I want to leave here, because I have no future here.”

Leila, former journalist

at franceinfo

Leila tries to find ways to make a living to help her mother and three sisters. She also counts on the help of her uncle, who lives in Australia and sometimes sends her money, so that she can buy food.

*Name has been changed