No respect for women

More and more women feel they have to work out of economic necessity but there is no safety in the workplace.
Men, whether they are colleagues or strangers, abuse women who are alone in public.
One of the hardest jobs is as a shopkeeper. “They think we sell ourselves not our goods,” says a female shopkeeper in the centre of Kabul. “Men walk into my shop, spend 10 or 15 minutes, ask prices but buy nothing, all the time looking at me like they would like to buy me!” she is indignant.
Another woman in the same market shared similar experiences. She has been helping in her father’s shop where he sells shawls and chemises that he brings from Pakistan. Yet, she is stoic. “People have different views,” she reasons. “I don’t give importance to what they say.” But she talks of a friend who gave up her business because she could not take the verbal abuse also from relatives. “Her relatives taunted her for being a shopkeeper; insulted her father for living on the earnings of a woman. She had to quit working and stay at home.”
Cosmetics shopkeeper Wahida points out that not just working, but going out of the house is tough for a woman in Afghanistan. “Men stare. Had my father not been disabled, or if I had a brother, I would never be a shopkeeper,” she says tearfully.
Of the tens of women Kilid interviewed only one, Bibi Gul, in her fifties with a shop that sells foodstuff in Shahidan square, insisted she has never faced abuse from men. Everyone respected her, she said. She felt women should be brave.

Conservative society

Selai Wardak, a women’s rights supporter, says that the current situation in the country is unsuitable for women shopkeepers. The level of awareness of people is low and women face many problems.” She urges the government to set up women’s markets, where only women can sell or buy.
Mahmooda Taqwa, the head of Gurbut TV channel and a women’s rights activist, too thinks society has not progressed enough to accept women shopkeepers. “It is a dream for women to set up their own business, but in Afghanistan it entails big sacrifices on the part of the woman’s family. Often they get tired (of the obstacles),” Taqwa says.
Women activists want the government to change perceptions through concessions for women entrepreneurs or set up separate women-only markets. There have been two women-only initiatives recently. In Kabul, in the Rabeya Balkhi market, 120 disabled women exhibited their skills in handicrafts. Parwana Ahmadi, head of the disabled women’s union, thinks this effort is hugely encouraging to the participants. And only last week a women’s only market was inaugurated in Taluqan, the provincial capital of Takhar. Jan Rustayee, the first women to set up shop was interviewed by the media. “I set up shop here and encouraged other women to join. The market is run by and for women.”
Razmara, the head of women’s affairs in Takhar province, hopes this initiative of the government will inspire women to “reach the limits of their ability”. “We work a lot on development of women with the help of women’s organisations. This market is a big achievement,” she says.
Meanwhile, businesswomen in Kandahar have requested the provincial government to set up a special market for them. At an exhibition organised by the women’s affairs department, women participants led by Freba, head of Kandahari Khazana, a cooperative of women, said having their own shops would solve many problems of access and safety that they face.