Editor's note: this story was translated from the original VOA Dari article.
“I have a hard winter ahead of me,” said Farzana, a single mother of five in Kabul. “I don’t know what to do.”
“I am worried about how to meet my winter needs; wood is expensive, gas is expensive, coal is expensive, as well as winter clothes,” she said.
Farzana, who asked that her real name not be disclosed for security reasons, was a secondary school teacher who lost her job when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.
She said that she checks fuel prices and the prices of other necessities daily as winter approaches, and the rising costs are “very worrying.”
Women-led households like Farzana’s face “significantly sharper levels of poverty, acute food insecurity, and eviction risks” compared to men-headed households in Afghanistan.
According to the United Nations, Afghanistan will remain one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises in 2026, where 17.4 percent of the population needs urgent food assistance in Afghanistan.
After seizing power in 2021, the Taliban barred women from working outside of their homes in government and non-government organizations.
The Taliban also banned women from public spaces. Under the Taliban, women are barred from going to beauty salons, public baths, parks, and traveling without a close male relative.
Abdul Hadi Farhang, founder of Afghanistan Traders and Investors, told VOA that the Taliban’s restrictions and Afghanistan’s economic crisis have taken a toll on women.
“They are omitted from most of the labor market. They cannot work for foreign NGOs or in offices where they can earn a living,” said Farhang. “This is painful.”