Fear, economic downturn shuts female café in Kabul

Fear and an economic downturn have seen the closure of restaurants and cafés run by women in Kabul.

Once a renowned hang-out, the Tabasum café is now an empty space, with just tables and chairs.

Twenty-three year-old Nikee Tabasum, who owns the café in the west of the city, had to shut it down on August 16 as Taliban fighters took over the capital.

Tabasum still remembers the anxiety when she heard the news of the group's fighters entering the city.

She said although she was never warned or threatened by the Taliban to close her café, the fear of being targeted and losing her customers, who were mostly female university students, forced her to shut down.

"We were all surrounded by fear and anxiety, we were very scared and our customers who were all female students also didn't want to come anymore to our café…that is why we shut down the café," she said.

Tabasum, who has three sisters and one six-year-old brother, is the oldest child in her family and used to help her father make ends meet financially.

She finished high school in the Jaghori district of Ghazni province and came to Kabul five years ago.

She borrowed one million Afghanis - about 10,000 US dollars - from family and friends to set up the restaurant, and with the profit she made over the past five years she managed to pay off all her debts.

The small café, which used to serve Afghan traditional snacks, provided jobs for eight other women who were responsible for feeding their families.

Arranging dusty books and magazines, Tabasum said she used to make up to 20,000 Afghanis (224$USD) profit on busy days, but the closure of the café has meant Tabasum and her eight other female workers have lost their only income.

"Before Taliban came to power, I was doing good business, I had a good income. Many days I used to make 20,000 Afghanis (224$USD) on busy days, but in the month and 15 days that the Taliban have returned back to power our café has been closed," said Tabasum.

Now, with women prevented from working in public, all the women once working in the restaurant are now unemployed.

Madina Ghulami used to work as the manager in the Tabasum Café. She is now jobless and, like many other Afghan women, spends all her days at home.

She lost her father in a car accident and since then has had the responsibility of feeding her two younger brothers and her mother.

Since losing her job, she has been unable to pay the bills and is willing to work in anywhere to be able to make ends meet for her family.

"Unfortunately, the economic situation is already bad and it is getting worse in Afghanistan. We, all the women want to work in any condition, but unfortunately there is no working opportunities available for us," said Ghulami.

The Taliban have already asked women working in most government offices to stay at home, despite their announcements to respect women's rights to work and education.

In early September, the Taliban shut down the Women's Affairs ministry, replacing it with a ministry for the "propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice", which is tasked with enforcing Islamic laws.