Status: 09.08.2022 04:07
A year after the Taliban seized power, large sections of the Afghan population live in poverty: Many have lost their jobs. Those who used to belong to the middle class are now dependent on food donations.
Farzana tries to squeeze into a taxi with other women and children while men with wheelbarrows haul groceries into the trunk. Farzana’s nerves are on edge, just like everyone else’s in the Shahr-e Naw neighborhood in central Kabul. She has been in line with hundreds of other people since five in the morning. Five hours later, she finally received the food she was entitled to: “My husband lost his job, that’s why I’m here. Now we don’t have anyone at home who can make money…” she complains.
Your voice fails. Farzana tries to wipe away the tears with the corner of her black headscarf, but they keep coming. Her husband had a job with the secret service in the former government. That’s why he fled to neighboring Iran shortly after the Taliban came to power – together with his 18-year-old son.
Such an escape would be too dangerous for Farzana and the younger children. So now she lives alone with her two little daughters and two sons. Although – you can hardly call it living anymore, says Farzana, she’s just trying to make ends meet from day to day. “Sometimes relatives give us a hand or the neighbors give something away when they have a job.”
Food donations in the noble district
Almost 15,000 people in the Shar-e Naw district alone receive free food once a month: 50 kilograms of flour, a few kilograms of beans, oil and salt. Organized by the United Nations World Food Program, which is working here with a local aid organization. More than half of Afghans currently do not know where the next meal will come from – and when.
In Kabul, more and more people are dependent on the free food. Shahr-e Naw is a very chic neighborhood with boutiques, air-conditioned shopping centers and expensive supermarkets with food from abroad. They still exist, these shops, only now they are mostly empty.
Farzana also liked to go shopping here. Then the Taliban came to power in mid-August last year – and Farzana’s life, like that of almost everyone in Afghanistan, was turned upside down overnight:
My children had clothes, my husband had a job, the salary was good, and we always had enough to eat. Now we have nothing, no money, no job. And sometimes we don’t even have anything to eat at home, so my kids go to bed hungry.
Learned to fight, not to rule
The economy in Afghanistan is completely on the ground. The Taliban are fairly inexperienced at running a state. For 20 years, the members have learned more about fighting in the mountains than sitting at desks as officials. Even before it came to power, the Republic of Afghanistan could hardly survive without help from abroad.
The new Islamic Emirate, as the Taliban now call the state, has not yet been officially recognized by any other country in the world. There are sanctions, some ministers are still on international terror lists, and foreign accounts have been frozen.
“Economic performance below zero”
“Our country’s economic output is below zero,” says former taxi driver Abdul. “You can see that in me and in the situation of my customers. Most of them have lost their jobs. So if there is no money in circulation, the economy is just really bad.”
Abdul’s clients were mostly officials from the former government. Many of these posts are now occupied by the Taliban. And since the Taliban took power, most people have been earning less money – or nothing at all.
“It’s mental”
Despite this, almost everything is becoming more expensive in Afghanistan: fuel prices have doubled, and spare parts for cars are now unaffordable, says Abdul. And his broken car has to stop now.
That’s why Abdul is now with thousands of others at the food distribution to give their families food for a while. An employee of the local aid organization calls out the names of the people who are allowed to pick up their rations. Abdul is ashamed: “We depend on alms. It does something to you. It affects morale and the psyche.”
He doesn’t even have hope anymore, says Abdul. Farzana, who is trying to survive on her own with her four children, says she cannot imagine a future in Afghanistan at all right now.