As the Taliban continues its ever-expanding efforts to keep women and girls out of the public eye, one Afghan woman is leveraging her business acumen to challenge the new status quo.

In late August, the Taliban issued a new law restricting women’s voices and faces in public spaces, the latest steps in their ongoing campaign to erase women from society.

To learn more about how women are coping under these conditions, I spoke with a well-known entrepreneur and civil and women’s rights activist whose devotion to her business stands as a beacon of hope. As the owner and founder of a large food-processing company, she provides employment to upwards of 1,000 employees, most of them women. Her support has given hundreds of families job opportunities and a steady income amid grim economic conditions.

This woman began her entrepreneurial journey 25 years ago. In a traditional society where women had fewer freedoms and decision-making power, women in business were a rare sight. However, she strived and fought daily, challenging societal norms and breaking stereotypes to show that women have the capacity to undertake roles beyond household chores.

In the past two decades, Afghan women have played a significant role in entrepreneurship and businesses of all sizes. My interviewee was one of 54,000 female business owners, a sector that saw an increase in female managers and owners according to statistics published by Afghanistan’s Ministry of Economy in March 2021.

After the Taliban retook power in 2021, they began rebuilding their regime of the 1990s – this time more oppressively. They imposed and implemented more restrictions on women’s freedom, movement, and rights to access education, work, and healthcare.

Three years on, women in Afghanistan are not allowed to leave home alone or work outside. They are banned from travelling without a male guardian beyond Taliban-imposed limits. In December 2022, women were barred from working in international NGOs, including United Nations agencies.

According to a World Bank survey, as of spring 2023 over one-third of surveyed firms report operating below capacity, and eight percent of primarily women-owned firms had been either temporarily or permanently closed. The report indicated that small, female-owned firms are more prone to closure, highlighting their heightened vulnerability to economic shocks compared to male-owned businesses.

My interviewee is not exempt from the Taliban’s restrictions on women. She faces challenges due to their decrees but refuses to give up. After fighting for women’s rights and building her company for over 20 years, the idea of surrendering her achievements and destroying the livelihoods of thousands of families is unthinkable to her.

While she observes the Taliban’s rules, she does not agree with them. Through her women’s rights advocacy, which highlights the importance of her service to society, she has had several meetings with Taliban authorities in the presidential palace in Kabul.

“Women are half of the body of society. If women don’t work, it’s like half of a body is disabled and doesn’t work,” she told the Taliban. “No country’s economy can survive without women’s contribution. Women must take part in every aspect of society. Otherwise, that country will collapse.”

The Taliban’s regime has been labeled a ‘Gender Apartheid’ state by the UN and international experts. Gender apartheid is a form of sex-based discrimination that severely restricts human rights on the basis of sex, with profound implications for women’s participation in the economy.

A UN report in April 2024 found that despite facing formidable challenges, women-owned and run businesses in Afghanistan continue to demonstrate remarkable resilience, serving as vital pillars of economic stability and hope amidst adversity.

According to UNDP, women are finding ways to tackle challenges in Afghanistan, where 15.8 million people are food insecure and the employment rate for working-age women has halved to six percent since last year. “Entrepreneurship has surfaced as a lifeline for women and their families,” it noted, with 80% of women-led enterprises relying on their business revenues as their primary source of income.

On June 30th, the UN invited the Taliban to the Doha talks 3. The discussion deviated from the main path of creating a peaceful, stable Afghanistan and an inclusive government. To bring the Taliban to the negotiating table, the UN focused the agenda on economic issues, combating narcotics, and the private sector, gearing it towards the Taliban itself.

In doing so, the UN excluded Afghan women and their human rights from the meeting agenda to appease the Taliban. Afghan women and girls – half of the country’s population – were ignored and left out of negotiations related to the country. This ongoing gender apartheid policy of the Taliban ensured that female business owners and entrepreneurs were left out of those discussions.

My interviewee is a role model for many Afghan women, and many are attempting to follow in her footsteps. Women in Afghanistan are trying to defy the Taliban’s cruel decrees on their rights and, in particular, are demonstrating the crucial role of women in Afghanistan’s economy.

Afghan women have been fighting for gender equality, rights, and freedoms for so long. They managed to live in freedom and democracy during the past twenty years and make significant achievements. The Taliban’s takeover and their brutal restrictions must not – and cannot – prevent women from serving Afghan society and its people. Despite all obstacles, women are playing a crucial role – and the UN and the international community must not ignore them and their suffering.

The author is an Afghan legal scholar whose identity cannot be publicly revealed due to security threats.