In Afghanistan, women become breadwinners selling handmade products to make ends meet
- Afghan women have been relying on their handicraft skills to feed their families, making products like dresses, carved furniture and jewellery to sell
- NGOs and retailers help ensure Afghan women have incomes by providing handicraft workshops and selling handmade items despite Taliban restrictions
Sharifa Hussaini, 33, inserts a needle through silk fabric and pulls the thread taut to stitch floral motifs bursting with colours from red to orange and yellow. Her latest work is a traditional Afghan dress.
“I thank my mother and grandmother that they taught me this craft while I was a child. Without this skill, I would have failed to feed my family,” Hussaini, who earns around 6,000 Afghan afghanis (US$82) a month, told This Week In Asia.
Ever since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in 2021, women have not only been barred from studying in secondary schools, colleges and universities, but also refused jobs in professions ranging from teachers and lawyers to bankers and photographers.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, female employment was 25 per cent lower compared with the second quarter of 2021, before the Taliban takeover.
Overall, half a million people have been rendered jobless and around 43 per cent of the population is living on less than one meal a day.
In such trying times, at least 4,000 women artisans like Hussaini, hailing from various Afghan provinces ranging from Kabul to Badghis and Bamiyan, have been using their handicraft skills to feed their families.
