Afghan Service on BBC
BBCIn a tight office in Kabul, where rugs are made, hundreds of women and women work in stifling, wet weather.
Salehe Hassani, 19, is one of them. She says,” We females no longer have the chance to examine,” with a sluggish smile. We turned to the workshop because” the situation have taken that from us.”
Women over the age of 12 have been barred from receiving an education and people have been barred from some jobs since the Taliban seized strength in 2021.
Only 19 % of women were employed in 2020, four times as many as men. Under Taliban law, that amount has decreased yet more.
Some people have long, tedious days of floor weaving, one of the few professions that the Taliban authorities allows women to work in, due to the lack of opportunities, coupled with the severe economic circumstance the country is in.
The rug weaving industry accounts for nearly 90 % of the Afghan population’s income, according to the UN.
In an economy that the UN warned in a 2024 report warned had “basically collapsed” since the Taliban took power, the carpet export business is booming.
Over 2.4 million kilograms of carpets, worth$ 8.7 million ( £6.6 million ), were exported to countries like Pakistan, India, Austria, and the US in the first six months of 2024 alone, according to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
However, this has not always resulted in higher income for the workers. Some of the people we spoke to told the BBC that they had not seen any of the profits from a item sold in Kazakhstan last year for$ 18, 000.
Carpets can be purchased in Afghanistan for much less, between$ 100 and$ 150 per square metre. Working individuals are dependent on their families, and workers are confined to low-paid work.
Carpet workers claim to make about$ 27 per square metre, which is typically produced in a fortnight. Despite the long, exhausting transitions that frequently last 10 or 12 days, that is less than a dollar per day.
The BBC was allowed to enter Nisar Ahmad Hassieni’s workshops by the Elmak Baft company, which paid its employees between$ 39 and$ 42 per square meter. He claimed that they receive eight hours of work per week and are paid every two months.
Girls will be able to return to school when concerns about aligning the curriculum with Islamist values are addressed, according to the Taliban’s repeated repeated statements, but so far no practical steps have been taken to accomplish that.
Mr. Hassieni claimed that his organization made it its goal to help those affected by the cutbacks following the ascendancy of the Taliban authorities.
He claims to have “established three workshops for floor spinning and wool spinning.”
According to the company, “aproximately 50 % of these blankets are exported to Pakistan, while the remaining are sent to China, the USA, Turkey, France, and Russia in response to user need.”
Shakila, 22, and her daughters in one of the humble rented rooms they live together in with their old parents and three brothers. They reside in the underdeveloped Dasht-e Barchi neighborhood, which is located in the western reaches of Kabul.
She previously dreamed of becoming a lawyer, but now runs her mother’s carpet-making business.
Shakila tells me,” We couldn’t do anything else.” There were no” no additional work” at all.
She explains how her parents, who was recovering from a car accident, taught her to sew when she was 10 years old.
What started out as a necessity in a challenging environment has now become a mother’s backbone.
Samira, 18, Shakila’s girlfriend, aspired to be a blogger. Before she could also start to desire of a job, Mariam, 13, was forced to stop attending school.
All three of the Taliban’s were Sayed al-Shuhada High School students before their profit.
After 90 school bombings at the time in 2021, which typically involved young girls, and almost 300 others who were injured, their lives were forever altered.
The Taliban, who denied any involvement in the attack, was attributed to the preceding state.
Their parents decided to drop them from class out of fear of a new horror.
Samira, who was present at the college when the problems occurred, has suffered trauma, struggles to speak, and struggles to express herself. She continues to say that she would return to a proper training.
She claims,” I definitely wanted to finish my research.” ” The security situation has improved and there haven’t been as many death bombing as the Taliban are in the past,” he said.
However, the schools remain shut. That’s the reason we need to function.
Despite the low pay and long hours of work that these people work, some women’s souls remain strong.
Salehe, who was determined and upbeat, confided at one of the seminars that she had been studying English for the previous three years.
We won’t prevent our learning, she says, despite the closed schools and universities.
Salehe adds that she plans to one day become a renowned physician and construct Afghanistan’s best doctor.