Why Should Women and Children do Hard Work?

In this cold winter, women and children bring firewood from the mountain and then sell it for a few Afghanis and make a living from it.

55-year-old Bibi Gol is one of the women who carry this heavy burden of life. She says that she has to work hard and collect wood from the mountain to meet her family’s needs.

(I work hard with a sick body, my eyes hurt, I can’t buy medicine, I’m tired of work, and I don’t have clothes and other necessary things for life.)

We asked her why she is in poverty at this age, but she did not say anything and preferred to remain silent.

In addition, a large number of children also carry heavy loads. Allah Noor, one of the residents of the said area, says that poverty forced her to do this and says that children and women wake up at three o’clock in the morning and bring firewood from the mountain. She says that men can do such work, but women hardly fetch wood from a distance of 6 km.

Everyone gets up in the middle of the night, we go to the mountains, we cut and bring wood, and this is mandatory work.))

Little Khanjar also spends his sweet childhood with hard work. He brings up to seventy kilos of wood from the mountain every day and earns up to 250 Afghani in return.

((I bring down seventy kilos of wood a day, then I sell it, sometimes I get 200 Afghanis, sometimes 250 Afghanis a day and I take it home))

Women and children collect the wood in one place and then sell it to traders.

Ali, who owns a wood shop, says that he buys wood from them for 30 Afghanis and sells it to others after collecting it. He says that if the government intervenes in the work of these families, they may get out of this situation.

(I am here waiting for them to bring the wood, I will pay them for the wood, and then we will buy and sell it. If the government and international institutions help, it will be good for them.)

Maybe this is a small example of the difficulties in the lives of Afghan families, but there are other similar areas where women and children face these difficult conditions and do heavy work.

Experts say that if the government increases work opportunities for men and women inside the home, perhaps no Afghan child or woman will be forced to do heavy work.

Translated by: Shir Ali Jafari