Herat Women Take Charge in Business

Thursday, 24 February, 2011

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Sudabah Afzali

A dozen young women are crowded into the busy workshop, surrounded by weaving looms and sewing machines. Absorbed in their work, they do not look up when visitors enter the room where they are making silk scarves, embroidered pieces and clothing, all destined for the local market.

For 25-year-old mother-of-three Masuma, the job has transformed her life. Paying the equivalent of five US dollars a day, the work is hard but has given her new-found independence and improved her relationship with her husband, a construction worker.

“I have been working in this workshop for the past six months, and since the day I started earning a wage, my husband has respected me more and treated me better,” she said. “The unfortunate customs and traditions here mean that people don’t like women to work. These are issues we have to struggle with.”

Women in the western province of Herat are increasingly defying taboos to form their own businesses, and even employ other women. In the latest development, a dedicated centre for female shopkeepers, the Khadija market, is due to open in Herat city centre on International Women’s Day next month.

Sidiqa Tamaski, owner of the Herat Production Workshop where Masuma works, started her weaving business at home, going on to open a workshop which now has 20 employees, all women.

“Besides the workshop, we have also opened shops in two markets in the city where we sell our goods, and the shopkeepers are women as well,” the 35-year-old said. “We’ve also tried to encourage other shopkeepers to buy our products, and we’ve appointed three women to run our marketing section for this purpose.”

Tamaski said the greatest obstacle she faced was tradition-based discrimination against businesses being run by women, so that men were often reluctant to buy from her shops.

Officials in Herat province acknowledge that women in business face prejudice, but praise their increasing role in the community.

“There are currently six women’s business associations in Herat province that are particularly active in the fields of garments and food production,” Khalil Ahmad Yarmand, chief executive of the Herat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said. “There are around 1,500 women working in these areas.”

Although women traditionally work in areas like handicrafts and carpet-weaving in most provinces of Afghanistan, they are generally prevented from investing or selling independently. Even after the fall of the Taleban regime in 2001, they continued to face many obstacles.

For the last six months, Mahnaz, 28, has run a shop selling ornaments and children’s and women’s clothes in a Herat market.

“Initially I felt uncomfortable when people looked at me,” she said. “By staring at me, they were trying to make me understand I was doing something improper. Some people didn’t just stop at looks – several individuals have also threatened me a few times during the past six months, telling me to close down or else they will set fire to my shop.”

Mahnaz said she had notified the security services and the owner of the market, but to no avail. The owner suggested she leave the market, something she was unwilling to do since she had already signed a two-year contract.

“I was forced to bring my father into the shop as a partner for a while to reduce the problems I was facing,” she said. “The harassment has decreased now, but there’s still some trouble.”

However, Mahnaz is no longer the only female shopkeeper in the market. Three other women have opened businesses there, and she herself plans to buy two more shops in the soon-to-open Khadija development and rent a further outlet for her aunt to manage.

“All we need is security from the government,” she said. “We urge members of the public to allow their wives and daughters to work.”

Other businesswomen have been even more ambitious, looking beyond the borders of Afghanistan to find new markets.

Atifa Mansuri, 45, is developing a business plan to export handicrafts made by women to Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan.

She has already sends goods like silk handkerchiefs, rugs and embroidered items to trade fairs and exhibitions in other provinces of Afghanistan and abroad. So far, she has met with a positive reception.

“Foreign customers like people working for the Provincial Reconstruction Teams [PRT] and the foreign troops also like our products a lot,” she said. “They buy these items, and that has helped us promote them.”

Mansuri criticised the government for failing to provide enough support for business leaders like her.

This accusation was rejected by Karima Husseini of the women’s affairs department for Herat province, who said her office played a major role in developing female businesses.

She pointed to the Khadija centre, named after the Prophet Mohammad’s first wife, a successful businesswoman.

Built by the Italian-run PRT at a cost of 200,000 dollars, the market has 36 shops, and many applicants have registered to lease them.

“In order to distribute the shops fairly, we have created a committee which is looking at having a shop for every sector,” she said. “The shops will be provided to women rent-free for the first three months, but then they will have to pay between 50 to 100 dollars a month.”

Husseini said her department had also helped businesswomen access bank loans, adding that with by agreement with the local PRT, an exhibition of items made by Herati women would shortly take place in Italy.

Observers note that boosting women’s participation in the economic life of the country had a whole range of benefits, from reducing poverty to combating domestic abuse.

“Some [domestic] violence stems from poverty,” Moaidulhaq Moaidi, an expert on social affairs, said. “The man in the household has to earn enough to cover the costs of seven or eight family members. This can lead to increasing arguments. When [financial] problems are alleviated by women going into business, violence is reduced and women gain a more important and respected role within the family.”

Some men in Herat remain unhappy about women taking a role in business, arguing that it is liable to lead to “immoral” behaviour.

“Women who want to do business at the market can’t be trusted and no one should deal with them or help them,” said one angry local, Mawlawi Abdullah Mohammadi.

But some Muslim clerics point out that women are not barred from commerce under Islamic law.

“Islam accords women rights of ownership and inheritance. They can do business,” religious leader Abdul Wahed Asemi said. “They must observe Islamic dress and the code of modest conduct, but as long as they do, there’s no prohibition on them doing business.”

Sudabah Afzali is an IWPR-trained reporter in Herat.