The girls went to low -paid weaving after a school ban

At a workshop in Kabul, where carpets, hundreds of women and girls work in a close space, the air is thick and suffocating.

Among them is 19-year-old Saleh Hassani. “We, girls, are no longer able to learn,” she says with an unsuccessful smile. “The circumstances took us, so we turned to the workshop.”

Ever since the Taliban seized power in 2021, girls over 12 were forbidden to receive education and women from many jobs.

In 2020, only 19% of women were part of the labor – four times less than men. This number has fallen even more under the rule of the Taliban.

The lack of opportunities in combination with the terrible economic situation faced by the country has pushed many on long, painstaking days of weaving carpets – one of the few transactions in which the Taliban government allows women to work.

According to the UN, the livelihood of approximately 1.2 to 1.5 million Afghans depend on the weaving industry, and women make up almost 90% of labor.

In the economy that UN warned in the 2024 report They warned that “mostly collapsed” because the Taliban took power, the carpets were flourishing.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade noted that in the first six months of 2024 more than 2.4 million kilograms of carpets – worth $ 8.7 million (6.6 million pounds) – were exported to countries such as Pakistan, India, Austria and the US.

But this did not necessarily mean the best wage for weavers. Some BBC said that last year they did not see any profit from the work sold in Kazakhstan, which received $ 18,000.

In Afghanistan, carpets are sold much less – from $ 100 to $ 150 per square meter. The necessary money to help maintain their families and have several employment options, workers are trapped in low -paying jobs.

Faviline weavers say they earn about $ 27 per square meter, which usually takes about a month. This is less than the dollar a day, despite the long, grueling shifts that often last up to 10 or 12 hours.

Nisso Ahmad Hasieni, head of Elmak Buck, which allowed the BBC to go to his workshops, said he would pay his staff from $ 39 to $ 42 per square meter. He said they were paid every two weeks with an eight -hour day.

The Taliban has repeatedly said that the girls would be allowed to return to school if his problems, such as the curriculum leveling with Islamic values, would be resolved – but there has not been a specific steps to take it.

Mr. Hasini said that after the rise of the Taliban government, his organization had made its mission to support those who remained closed.

“We have created three seminars on weaving rugs and wool,” he says.

“About 50-60% of these carpets are exported to Pakistan, and the rest go to China, the US, Turkey, France and Russia to meet customer demand.”

22 -year -old Shakila makes carpets with his sisters in one of the rooms of modest rent, which they also share with their elderly parents and three brothers. They live in the impoverished area of ​​Dash-e Barchi, on the western outskirts of Kabul.

She once dreamed of becoming a lawyer, but now she is conducting an operation to make her family carpets.

“We couldn’t do anything else,” Shakila tells me. “There were no other jobs.”

She explains how her father taught her to weave when she was 10, and he recovered after a car accident.

What began as the necessary skill during the difficulties became the life of the family.

Sister Shakila, an 18-year-old Samira, sought to become a journalist. Mariam, 13 years old, was forced to stop going to school before she could start dreaming of a career.

Before the Taliban return, all three were students of the high school of Saida al-Shuhoda.

Their lives were forever changed after the deadly explosions at school in 2021 killed 90 people, mostly young girls and left almost 300 wounded.

The previous government has accused the Taliban of the attack, although the group refused any participation.

Fearing another tragedy, their father decided to abandon the school.

Samira, who studied at school when the attacks took place, was left injured, talking to stuttering and struggling to express himself. However, she says she will do everything to return to formal education.

“I really wanted to finish my studies,” she says. “Now that the Taliban is in power, the safety situation has improved and there were fewer suicides.

“But schools are still closed. So we have to work.”

Despite the low pay and long hours of work, these women face, some perfumes are unsubstantiated.

Returning to one of the workshops, Saleh, decisive and reliable, she trusted that she has studied English over the last three years.

“Despite the fact that schools and universities are closed, we refuse to stop our education,” she says.

One day, Saleh adds, she plans to become a leader and build a better hospital in Afghanistan.