Widows in Ghor: “We Don’t Know How to Feed Our Children”

AI-generated / Zan TV

When night falls, Salima’s dark and poorly equipped home is more than just four walls. It is a place where she must endure the night in tears, worrying about her children going hungry.

It has been three months since her husband died. She says he was ill and had little ability to work, but while he was alive, he could at least find some food for their children. Now Salima is left with several children and a table that, she says, is empty on many nights.

Salima told Zan News: “Life has become difficult. We have nothing to eat. If I beg, it is shameful and sinful, but if I stay at home, how am I supposed to feed these children?”

She says that after her husband’s death, she received no effective support from the Taliban administration or aid organisations. She may be able to endure going to bed hungry herself, but seeing her children hungry is another kind of pain.

Bibi Rehana, a resident of Saghar district in Ghor, is also raising six children alone after the death of her husband.

She says villagers sometimes give her family a piece of dry bread, some wheat or flour, but the assistance is not consistent.

Bibi Rehana says: “Life is very difficult for a widow raising orphans. No organisation or government helps us. I do not know how to save my children from dying.”

According to her, her children are becoming thinner and weaker day by day, and she herself sometimes goes through the night without food.

She adds: “I am ready to do any work so that my children do not die. I have to find food somehow, but it has become very difficult.”

Gul Afroz, another widow in Ghor, weaves carpets to support her family. She works from morning until night, but says that despite the long hours, her monthly income does not even reach 4,000 afghanis.

Gul Afroz says: “As long as you have someone supporting the family, a husband, brother or father provides everything. But when you have no one, you realise how difficult life is for a woman who has to provide for the family.”

These women say that after their husbands died, they lost not only their spouses but also the main breadwinners of their families. They are now responsible for supporting their children in circumstances where work opportunities and support are limited.

They are calling on the Taliban administration and aid organisations not to forget families without breadwinners and to provide widows with employment opportunities and sustained support.

In Ghor, behind every carpet loom and every empty table is the story of a mother struggling with tired hands to keep her children alive.

These women say they do not want charity. They want their children not to go hungry and the opportunity to live with dignity.