Afghan women turn to entrepreneurship, become YouTubers under Taliban work restrictions
Under stringent Taliban restrictions and laws, female-led businesses are now the only lifeline for Afghan women. However, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) study reveals that these women entrepreneurs are facing a series of hurdles in acquiring capital and reaching markets.
The study reveals that 41 percent of the surveyed 3100 Afghan women entrepreneurs had to take a loan or debt. However, just five percent of them were able to get these loans from banks or micro-finance institutions, and most of them relied on money borrowed from friends and family.
Respondents also stated that the restrictions impacted their activities, with more than 70 percent stating they couldn’t go to a local market without a male guardian.
The Taliban-led government has not formally prohibited women from work but has barred several women aid workers from services that employed several women, like beauty salon services. They have also limited women’s movement and work in many institutions without a male guardian
However, female businesses have continued to remain a part of Afghanistan’s economy. Some Taliban officials have even expressed their views as to how their administration wants to support female businesses, many of which employ women in carpet weaving, handicrafts, dried fruit and saffron production.
“Women have long been the driving force behind the welfare of households in Afghanistan and play a crucial role in sustaining local economies,” said Stephen Rodriques, UNDP’s Afghanistan Resident Representative, in a statement accompanying the study. “They need international support … the future of Afghanistan depends on them.”
On the other hand, due to many of these restrictions imposed by the Taliban, many women staying at home have become YouTubers.
One such YouTuber is Setaish Hayat, who says making YouTube videos at home is the next best thing in Afghanistan, where Taliban restrictions have increasingly locked women indoors.
Hayat shoots and posts around 30 videos in a month. Her videos are on a diverse range of topics from cooking, fashion and make-up, to skits with her family – making her one of the most successful of a growing number of women in Afghanistan going online in search of a living.
However, International sanctions have severely restricted transactions with banks in Afghanistan, so most YouTube content creators have friends abroad who pass on their earnings via money-transfer companies.
(with inputs from agencies)
