With secondary education and most jobs inaccessible, thousands of Afghan women are turning to entrepreneurship as a way to earn money and maintain social connections. Ghoncha Karimi, a 36-year-old beekeeper, exemplifies this shift as she works with her bees in an orchard near Herat City, Afghanistan.
The Taliban have enacted some of the strictest rules on women and girls globally. However, to avoid economic decline and isolation, they have permitted women to start businesses, provided they adhere to numerous strict regulations. According to the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, over 10,000 Afghan women now have business licenses. This marks a tenfold increase in five years. The World Bank reports that an additional 120,000 women work without licenses, making small businesses the largest employment sector for Afghan women.
Despite this apparent growth in entrepreneurship, opportunities for women are shrinking. Those aspiring to be lawyers, engineers, or university professors now find themselves in vocations such as carpet weaving or cosmetics. Women cannot work in government roles, most nonprofits, run beauty salons, study midwifery or nursing, or interact with male clients, suppliers, or banking officials.
The overall employment rate for Afghan women remains low. As of 2024, less than 7 percent of Afghan women were employed, according to the U.N. Development Programme. Those who do work face numerous challenges. In June, the harassment and arrests of women by the morality police led to rare public protests.