Under Taliban regime, businesswomen complain of lack of markets

KABUL: Afghan businesswomen have called out the Taliban once again for not getting ample market opportunities for their products. According to TOLOnews, they claimed that their product sales have been poor recently and urged the Islamic Emirate to give them more facilities for conducting business.

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the situation of females in the country has only gone worse. Females in the country are prohibited from leadership posts and are not allowed to travel unless accompanied by a male companion. Lamenting over the situation of businesses run by females in the country, Mumtaz Yosif Zai, a businesswoman said, "Women that run production in the private sector--the government has to provide permanent markets for them so they can make sales," reported TOLOnews.

The women's chamber of commerce and industry, meantime, called on the Taliban that they provide seminars for businesswomen and create market prospects. Separately, another businesswoman, Zakira said "Women face lack of markets for their products because people have economic issues and cannot buy our products."

The Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021 and imposed policies severely restricting basic rights--particularly those of women and girls, dismissed all women from leadership posts in the civil service and prohibited girls in most provinces from attending secondary school. Since August 15, 2021, the de facto authorities restricted women and girls' freedom of movement, excluded women from most areas of the workforce and banned women from using parks, gyms and public bath houses.