Entrepreneurship Was Meant to Be a Lifeline. For Afghan Women, It’s a Dead End.

This article is co-published with Rukhshana Media.

When Adiba* took out a loan to open a small clothes shop in northern Afghanistan, she was hoping to win financial independence. But within just six months, the 29-year-old’s business had foundered, leaving her in debt and stymied by a system that claims to promote female entrepreneurs while in reality making it all but impossible for them to survive.

Adiba set up her shop in a market in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif that the Taliban set up for women in 2023, promising to promote it through advertising and flyers. But no customers came.

“Every day I sewed and hung clothes in my shop, hoping someone would come to buy. But no one ever did,” she said.

Stories like Adiba’s have become common in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power and introduced a string of draconian restrictions on women, preventing them from accessing education and most forms of employment. The latest figures available put the employment rate of young Afghan women at 6% in 2023, and today it is likely to be even lower.  

In that context, many saw entrepreneurship as a lifeline – and they were encouraged to pursue it. According to a 2024 survey by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), 80% of businesses run by women are the primary source of income for them and their families. Most sell food, sweets and local handicrafts, while cosmetics are also popular.

Yet multiple businesswomen interviewed by More to Her Story and Rukhshana Media in Balkh, the northern province where Mazar-e-Sharif is located, said most female-led businesses have either collapsed or are on the verge of collapse, blaming Taliban control, ineffective aid and a failure to go beyond symbolic actions that provide little genuine support for women’s enterprises.

One of the first Taliban-imposed restrictions in Balkh banned women from selling products alongside men, forcing many to relocate their businesses to remote, low-traffic areas.

Adiba’s workshop was in the Khadijatul-Kobra market, which had nearly 200 shops when it first opened, according to one source with knowledge of the matter. Today, only around 50 shops remain, and many of those are preparing to close.

Adiba lost all the money that she invested in the business, as well as the 50,000 Afghanis (about $715) that she borrowed and now needs to find a way to repay. When she was unable to pay her rent and electricity bills, the market manager instead took her wares, leaving her with nothing to sell.

She said she received no support for her business. “Some people with connections faked businesses to get aid. Women whose husbands ran businesses got help, but real working women who deserved support were ignored.”

The UNDP, which provided support for the women’s market in Mazar-e-Sharif, said there were serious obstacles for women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan, citing discrimination, the employment bans and a weak financial system. Restrictions on women’s mobility — the Taliban require them to have a male guardian, known as a mahram, to travel – have added to the challenges.

Officially around 2,000 women are currently engaged in small, medium and large businesses in Balkh, according to a source at the province’s trade department.

All the women More to Her Story and Rukhshana Media spoke to in the province had effectively gone out of business, among them 32-year-old Nazanin*, who opened a tailoring workshop with the help of a foreign aid organisation. After six months, the support stopped, and she couldn’t continue.

“I didn’t have capital to buy my own equipment,” she said. “I haven’t even been able to pay back the 50,000 Afghanis I borrowed from my brother.”

Women in Balkh who had been running businesses for longer reported a dramatic change in their fortunes since the Taliban returned to power nearly four years ago.

Fatima*, 35, launched a small food business eight years ago, hoping to build a new future through her work. With an initial investment of 200,000 Afghanis (about $2850), she was able to open a shop in Mazar-e-Sharif, where business was good. But the Taliban’s restrictions have taken a heavy toll.

“I suffered greatly when the Taliban took over. We lost the freedom to run  businesses in the city,” she said. 

“For six months, I was under constant pressure. I lost all my capital, and my mental health deteriorated.”

Eventually Fatima moved to Rabia Balkhi, another market in the city that the Taliban labeled as ‘women-only,’ but where she said she barely had any customers.

“My daily expenses piled up, but I was earning nothing,” said Fatima.

“If you ask locals, very few even know the market exists. Even if one customer came, they’d see how dark and neglected the market was and leave. It was a market in name only.”

Women at both markets told More to Her Story and Rukhshana Media they had been warned not to speak to foreign media, and to present only a positive image to local news outlets.

One vendor at Rabia Balkhi said the Taliban-appointed market administrator had told her: “If you talk to the media, praise our government. Don’t criticize us, or we might close this market”.

One economist formerly based in Balkh who asked not to be named said the Taliban’s moves to encourage women to set up businesses were motivated more by international image-building than a genuine desire to boost livelihoods. 

“They don’t genuinely want women in the economy,” he said. “Most aid is corrupt, non-transparent, and goes to favored individuals.”

*Names have been changed to protect identities.