Empty Pockets of the Needy in the Cold Winter Air and the Warm Secondhand Market

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The severity of the cold weather in the winter season has led to the booming of secondhand clothing markets in Herat province.

Some needy families in Herat province, complaining about their economic difficulties, say that the cost of securing food on one hand and purchasing warm winter clothing on the other is a heavy burden on their weary shoulders.

Khadija, a 38-year-old widow with empty pockets and economic struggles, has been drawn to the secondhand market to buy clothes for her six orphaned children from the shops in this marketplace.

With a cold and painful sigh, she narrates the bitterness of her life: "I have 4 little girls and 2 boys. I am both their mother and father. There is nothing to eat at home. I am left bewildered, trying to find a piece of bread for my children. Winter has come, and from where should I get new warm clothes? I am forced to buy old coat and hats."

With a throat full of sobs, Khadija says that her husband was a soldier in the National Army under the Republic system and was killed in the war with the Taliban. "There was no other way for my husband to work, so he joined the National Army. Eight months into his duty and military training, the news of his martyrdom reached us. He was torn apart. I wish I had died in his place, so my children would have had a father and a breadwinner."

Shima is another middle-aged woman who is on hand secondhand clothes.

She says that the lack of financial means and job opportunities has deprived her of the ability to buy new winter clothes. "We are poor and destitute people. From morning till evening, I wash clothes in this house and that neighbor's house, doing house cleaning so I can earn enough to manage my own household. My husband is sick and bedridden. I bought jackets and coats for myself and my four children with two hundred and fifty Afghanis. What is the solution?"

On the other hand, some doctors in Herat province consider wearing secondhand clothes to be a cause of various diseases.

Salmah Haidari, one of the specialist doctors, says: "Old clothes cause many diseases, ranging from allergies to illnesses such as hepatitis, gonorrhea, syphilis, genital herpes, and other ailments. We must be very cautious and try to avoid using secondhand and old clothes as much as possible."

Nahid Karimi, another doctor, says that needy families should wear secondhand clothes only after disinfecting them. "Firstly, we should try to avoid wearing old clothes, but since poor families need warm clothing, they should first wash the clothes with soap and water, disinfect them, and then place them in the sunlight so that any germs and viruses on the clothes are eliminated."

The winter cold and economic poverty have heated up the secondhand market, while OCHA, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, states that one-third of Afghanistan's population, approximately 14.8 million people, will need humanitarian aid this year to survive.