What it is like to run a business as a woman in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan

The author, an Afghan woman, started a detergent and plastics business in 2023, employing six women and eight men despite Taliban bans on women working in government and private sectors imposed since the 2021 takeover. She describes hostile treatment at government offices and markets, repeated pressure from Taliban forces to fire her female employees, and eventual arrest and detention by the serious crimes department before her release on family guarantee.

She situates her experience within broader restrictions since 2021 — school closures for girls and women, workplace bans, mandatory hijab, and the mahram requirement for leaving home — describing life under these rules as a form of confinement with no clear path forward.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.