A number of working women in Badghis province who are heads of their families say that they are facing many challenges and economic problems and the work restrictions imposed on women have added to their economic problems more than ever.

These women have been forced to work from morning to midnight for various reasons, such as the loss of their husbands or the unemployment of their family’s breadwinners, such as selling handicrafts or cleaning people’s houses.

Fariha is one of the women who sells handlooms on the side of the road. She says that the bad economic situation forced her to work and find the expenses of her family.

“My husband is unemployed and cannot work, my daughter is 5 years old and my son is 8 years old.  At least for the sake of my two children, I have to work so that they don’t go hungry.  Sometimes I don’t have any income and sometimes I earn money to eat bread and that’s it.”

In the last two years after the fall of the government in Afghanistan, poverty and unemployment have reached their peak and the number of people in need of humanitarian aid has also increased.

Mastoreh, a woman who had five children and lost her husband, is busy cleaning people’s houses from morning to midnight.

He says: “After my husband was killed, I had to work by myself.  “In the early days, I used to wash clothes in people’s houses, but now I sell on the side of the road to find bread for my children.”

Women in Afghanistan have always faced various challenges.  From family and social violence to restrictions on the right to education and human rights.  But now a number of women who are heads of their families are in a bad economic situation due to the lack of breadwinners, lack of work and source of income.