Women must confront big risks, and sometimes death threats, to succeed in Afghanistan’s business world
Date:
Author: Hamayoon Sidiqi
Kabul, Afghanistan – Atefe Mansoori knows first-hand how risky it can be for a woman to go out and start a business in Afghanistan.
In 2001, her own relatives tried to discourage her when she decided to support herself by teaching other women how to read and write. She continued teaching, however, and with some savings in hand, organized the first-ever exhibition for both women and men saffron producers in Herat province.
“The success of this exhibition earned me trust and attention from the producers and I started marketing saffron,” she said. “Gaining visibility, however, brought with it death threats from the religious extremists because I was going out in the markets.”
Ms. Mansoori, the now-successful 52-year-old director of Abdullah Muslim Company, which processes and exports saffron, is among the many entrepreneurs whom UN Women has helped in a country where opposition to women’s advancement in the workplace can be severe. Ms. Mansoori told her story to UN Women after she and more than 120 other female entrepreneurs and businesswomen from all of the country’s 34 provinces gathered together to share stories and learn from each other’s successes and failures. The workshop was organized by UN Women’s Economic Security and Rights team and took place in Kabul on 7 December.
Afghan women have experienced significant improvement in their general status and rights in the past decade, but not so much in their opportunities in work. Afghanistan remains one of the world’s poorest countries, for women a plight compounded their sharp inequalities compared with men across all social and economic areas. In addition, there are practical problems such as mismatches in training. Women who are given vocational training such as sewing find little demand for their products because those same products are imported from countries like China and Pakistan and cost less.
In Afghanistan, UN Women supports women’s business and economic associations and programmes to boost the skills of women and girls from marginalized communities. It also supports the government’s National Action Plan for the Women of Afghanistan and helps the Ministry of Women’s Affairs become a more effective advocate for policy reform and provision of services to women.
Ms. Mansoori says the ministry and the Afghan chambers of commerce are not supporting women entrepreneurs. She said they should be providing them with training in marketing, developing business plans, and finding markets for their products. The authorities also should help with another big challenge for women entrepreneurs, she said: the security risks that restrict their movements around the country.
Ms. Mansoori herself did overcome the risks and told of what happened after she registered her own company in Herat and hired women to join her:
“I also organized training sessions on leadership, management and marketing skills for other women. I can proudly say that most of those women who worked with me, they have established their own businesses and many women are working with them now. This is a great honor for me.“
In November 2015, UN Women Afghanistan supported me and some other businesswomen to travel to New Delhi, India, to display our products at the India International Trade Fair exhibition. It was the greatest experience I have ever had in my entire business career. At the exhibition, I had the chance to meet and share experiences with many businesspeople from different parts of the world and learn about marketing. I learned about packaging, advertising and the nuances of attracting customers. I signed two international contracts to export saffron. I also made considerable profits through the selling of saffron, and I am grateful to UN Women for this awesome initiative. It is not an understatement to say that this tour was a revolution in my business life. It completely changed the way I was thinking about developing my business.
Ms. Mansoori stressed the importance of not yielding to the barriers that women faced:
“Despite several challenges including death threats, I never gave up because I knew the only way to eliminate violence against women is to help women become economically independent and empowered. With this in mind, I worked hard and struggled to help women to learn, work and earn. And this worked.”
Ms. Mansoori also said the December workshop was the first time she ever had the chance to discuss her experiences with so many other experienced businesswomen.
Also at the workshop was Sima Ghoryani, the director of NEGIN Saffron and head of the Afghan Saffron Women’s Union. About overcoming the social and cultural barriers, she said:
“When I started working as a businesswoman to process and export saffron to international markets, the farmers and saffron producers didn’t want to give me their saffron to process and export because they thought that as a woman, I was too weak to handle this business. With the help of my husband and male members of my family, I sat down with the saffron producers and I explained to them that I have good knowledge, some experience and the ability to run this business. I assured them that they would not suffer losses if they put their trust in me. After many discussions, a couple of saffron farmers agreed to work with me, to test whether I had the ability to handle this business.
The second big challenge which I overcame was convincing women to work with me. In my village, women were not used to working outside the home. I talked to their husbands and other members of their families and explained to them the benefits of working outside the home. I told their husbands that if the women worked with me, they would learn the skills of how to process saffron and offer it to international markets. And your wives and daughters will earn money to boost the family income. And the place where your women would work are all full of women. After many conversations with each family, they agreed to work with me. Now most of them are businesswomen and they run their own companies.“
The participants in the workshop formed a network to keep in touch and continue to share information and advice.
For more information
Please contact: Hamayoon Sediqi
National Information and Communications Officer, UN Women Afghanistan
Tel: +93 (0) 799 63 35 95 Email: hamayoon.sediqi@unwomen.org