Over the past 20 years, Afghan women have built 2,400 licensed companies and 54,000 informal businesses creating over 129,000 jobs.
Their own participation in the labor force had also steadily increased to reach 22% in 2019.
The fall of Kabul in August 2021 brought these opportunities to an end: today women are not allowed to work outside the home, cannot obtain a business license nor take out loans from the bank.
It is estimated that, in a country where over 80% of the population already lives below the poverty line of $1.25/day, restrictions on women’s employment will cost the Afghan economy an additional $1 billion (or 5% of the GDP), further exacerbating poverty, insecurity and human rights violations.
