WOMEN HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE AS THEY WANT. A WOMAN SHOULD NOT BE UNDER THE PRESSURE OF SOCIETY OR OF MEN

“I graduated with my Bachelor of Business Administration from a private university in Afghanistan and I also have a degree from Canada in management, as well as a Teacher Training College degree in the English language.

When the Taliban took power, I was jobless for some time, but I did not lose hope. I kept trying and got job at a national NGO working mostly for women. I was struggling hard to work for women and achieve our goals and solve women problems.

At the time of the 24 December ban on women working, I was working as a Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Officer at this local NGO. Before that, I worked with different NGOs and government sectors. I also worked as a teacher for seven years in different schools; as an M&E officer for 3 years; with an international non-governmental organization as professional coach on livelihood projects.

However, due to the 24 December ban on women working, I am now at home and don’t have any idea what will happen next to the poor women of my city. After I lost my job and have faced a lot of economic challenges, I’ve become hopeless about my future.

For me, the most important issue is to stop women and girls from being deprived of their education and employment rights and opportunities. Due to the 24 December ban, women are sitting at home, unable to develop their social life or exercise their right to work. This will have a negative impact on society. Eventually, this will result in child marriages. Afghanistan will go 20 years backwards.

One thing that anyone can do to support Afghan women is to hear our voices and offer support.

Afghan women are now going through a dark phase of their lives. We don’t have the ability to solve our problems by ourselves in this region; therefore, we are asking the international community to support us, hear our voices and take real and practical action to support Afghan women in this dark time.”