Bankrupt businesswomen of Afghanistan urge Taliban for help

Kabul [Afghanistan], February 4 : Afghan businesswomen, who have gone bankrupt and lost their jobs following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, urged the Islamic Emirate to pay attention to solve their challenges, local media reported.
Fereshta Hashemi, a businesswoman in Kabul, said she has been embroidering clothes for nearly six years. She claims that many women's businesses have stopped since the political change in the country.
"Our shops and factories have collapsed, women have stayed at home and there is nothing they can do," Fereshta Hashemi told Tolo News.
Hashemi calls on the Islamic Emirate to support women in small and large businesses. "Factories should be opened, women should be given projects so that they can work side by side with their brothers," she said.
"We ask the Islamic Emirate to provide jobs for women. Women are living in a bad situation and they need jobs," Tolo News quoted Mozhgan Hamidi, a businesswoman as saying.
Meanwhile, some economists emphasised the role of women in the economy's growth and development of the country and asked the Islamic Emirate to address their problems.
"The Afghanistan Businesswomen's Association (ABA) is a very good institution, it must be accepted and we must establish security for it. Secondly, we must maintain such an institution and take steps to develop it," Tolo News quoted Sayed Massoud, an economist as saying.
The Taliban took over control of Kabul on August 15 last year and following this, the country has been battered by a deepening economic, humanitarian and security crisis.
A combination of a suspension of foreign aid, the freezing of Afghan government assets, and international sanctions on the Taliban, have plunged the country, already suffering from high poverty levels, into a full-blown economic crisis.