Girls driven girls to weave low salary carpet after school ban

In a workshop in Kabul, where carpets are made, hundreds of women and girls work in narrow space, thickening the air.

Of them, 19 -year -old Salehe is laughing. “We no longer have a chance to study,” she said smiling in a mess. “The situation is taken by us, so we turned to the workshop.”

In 2021, the Taliban seized power, girls over the age of 12 have been restricted to getting education, and women from many jobs.

In 2, only 5 % of the women’s labor force was part – four times less than men. This number has decreased further under the Taliban rules.

Due to the lack of opportunities with the terrible financial situation in the country, many have pushed many carpets in long, hard -working days – one of the few trades allowed by the Taliban government to work.

According to the UN, about 1.2 to 1.5 million Afghan standardized carpets depend on the weaving industry, in which about 90% of women have created staff.

In the economy The UN warned in the 2024 report Since the Taliban took power, the warning was “basically collapsed”, the carpet export business is growing.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce noted that in the first six months of 224, countries of $.7 million (.6..6m) were exported to countries like Pakistan, India, Austria and the United States.

But that means weavers do not have a better pay. The BBC said that they did not see any profit of $ 18,000 from a piece sold in Kazakhstan last year.

In Afghanistan, carpets sell at low cost – between $ 100- $ 150 per square meter. They need money to help their families and there are some options for employment, workers are stuck in low salary labor.

Carpet weavers say they make about $ 27 for each square meter, which usually takes about a month to produce. It is less than one dollar a day, despite a long, terrible shift that often spreads for 10 or 12 hours.

Nisar Ahmed Hasni, the head of the Elmak Bft Company, who let the BBC go to his workshop, said he pays his employees between $ 39 and $ 42 per square meter. He said that they are compensated every two weeks on an eight -hour work day.

The Taliban has repeatedly said that the Taliban has repeatedly said that the girls have to go back to school after the concerns of aligning the courses with Islamic values ​​have been repeated – but no concrete steps have been taken to happen so far.

Mr. Hasni said that after the emergence of the Taliban government, his organization closed and made the goal of supporting Those who lives behind.

He says, “We installed three workshops for carpet weaving and wool spinning.

“About 50-60% of these rugs are exported to Pakistan, while the rest of the people are sent to meet consumers’ demand in China, USA, Turkey, France and Russia.”

22 -year -old Shakila makes carpets in a room in a room shared with his older parents and three brothers with his sisters. They live in the poor-bars of the west of Kabul.

She once dreamed of becoming a lawyer, but now she leads the carpet-making operation of her family.

“We could not do anything else,” Shakila tells me. “There were no other jobs”.

She explained how her father taught her when she was 10 years old, and he recovered from a car accident.

What started as the skills needed in difficult situations have now become a lifeline of the family.

Shakila’s sister, 18 -year -old Sameer, was aspired to be a journalist. The 13 -year -old Maryam was forced to stop at school before dreaming of a career.

Before returning to the Taliban, all three were students at Syed Al-Shuhada High School.

In 2021, after a deadly bombing in the school, their lives were permanently changed and 90 people were killed, most young girls and almost 300 injured.

The previous government blamed the Taliban for the attack, but the group rejected any participation.

Their father decided to withdraw from school for fear of another tragedy.

Sameer, who is in the school after the attack, has been hurt, he is struggling to speak and express himself. Still, she says she will do anything to return to formal education.

“I really wanted to complete my study,” she says. “Now the security situation has improved while the Taliban is in power and suicide bombings have declined.

“But schools are still closed. That’s why we have to work.”

These women have low salary and many hours of work, some are intact.

One of the workshops, Saleh, strong and optimistic, confessed that she has been studying English for the last three years.

“Even if schools and universities are closed, we refuse to stop our education,” she says.

One day, Sale further said that she is planning to become a leading doctor and build the best hospital in Afghanistan.