Despite many hurdles, female entrepreneurs find opportunities as the nation seeks to rebuild.
By Gayle Tzemach
Financial Times, 13 February 2006
KABUL, Afghanistan — When Shahla Nawabi arrived in Kabul to visit her father in 2002, she intended to stay for three months. Now, more than three years later, she is part of an emerging class of female entrepreneurs launching businesses in a nation where women were banned from work and study only five years ago.
"Coming back home and seeing the situation of the country, there was just so much to do here," Nawabi said of her decision to leave London, her home since 1966, for a city recovering from the destruction of 23 years of war.
Together with her business partner Ahmad Nawaz Baktyar, an engineer who worked with Ahmed Shah Massoud, the anti-Taliban leader, Nawabi formed Nawabi Construction. The 2-year-old company has completed nearly a dozen construction projects around the country, including a kindergarten in Kabul and a police station in Ghazni.
It is a far cry from Nawabi's previous career in the European fashion industry. Yet she credits her years learning the retail business and serving international clients with helping her take the leap to become an entrepreneur in the country she left at age 6. Nawabi handles most of the business side of her current enterprise and takes the lead negotiating contracts.
For those charged with developing Afghanistan's private sector, the work of Nawabi and others like her is crucial to leading the country out of its dependency on foreign aid and into the global economy.
"Our resources in Afghanistan are limited; we don't have a lot of things," said Hamidullah Farooqi, head of the Afghanistan International Chamber of Commerce, which claims 2,000 members worldwide. "Women are more than 50% of the society; if we don't give them a chance, this is a big loss."
For any aspiring entrepreneur, the challenges in rebuilding this society are many. Three decades of war destroyed Afghanistan's infrastructure, ravaging the country's roads and power grid. Security concerns make some regions difficult to reach. And skilled labor is in short supply, meaning companies such as Nawabi's often struggle to find enough workers. Most of the time they have to import skilled labor from neighboring Iran or Pakistan.
Capital, like electricity, is limited and expensive. A recent World Bank report on business climates ranked Afghanistan 153rd out of 154 when it came to securing credit.
Then there is the issue of gender. Afghanistan's new constitution guarantees all citizens "equal rights and duties" according to the law, but many women say that little has changed, especially for those in the provinces.
Six years of Taliban rule left women stripped of rights and confined to their homes. Education experts estimate the female illiteracy rate at 80% or more. A 2004 United Nations report said: "The impact of years of discrimination against women, coupled with prevailing poverty and insecurities, has meant that Afghan women have some of the worst social indicators in the world."
In this traditional society where women are more often seen tending to the home than the store, changing mind-sets is no easy task.
Nawabi remembers her workers initially doubting that she was serious about entering a typically male arena. "My crew thought that I was just passing my time, that I would realize that construction was really a tough job only for men," she said. "But I never really thought, 'Is this going to be a man's business or a woman's business?' I just thought it is going to be a good business to go into because there is a lot of construction going on."
Setting up a construction business may seem a particularly tough choice for a woman in a society such as this, but even for those in industries more traditionally associated with women's work, cultural challenges remain.
Sipping tea in her small Kabul storefront, Nasima Payman remembers the skepticism she faced from male colleagues when she arrived to sell her shawls at the bazaar for international troops.
"They were so surprised to see a woman bringing work to a men's gathering," she said, but over time their attitudes have changed. "Now they are all friendly and come up to say hello and ask if I need help. They are very welcoming."
It will take time for men's views to evolve, said Payman, but things are moving in the right direction. "Sure, it is quite sensitive for them that women are working, but gradually they are getting familiar with this and they are seeing that women can do business too," she said.
Around the corner from Payman, Sara Rahmani tends to her colorful clothing shop featuring her own designs. A corner mannequin displays a smart beige dress created from a burka.
Rahmani says opening her store marked the realization of a dream. "It is great. I am quite independent," she said of her ability to support herself.
She launched her business in August 2004 with the help of a $20,000 loan from her brother who lives in California. So far she has logged about the same amount in sales, and though the business is not yet in the black, she no longer needs her brother's help to pay her workers.
"My brother says: 'You are like a man in the way you work. I am really proud of you.' "
-----------------------------
Citation: Gayle Tzemach. "Women Enter Business Sector in Afghanistan," Financial Times, 13 February 2006.
Original URL: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-ft-women13feb13,1,7488526,print.story?coll=la-headlines-business
-----------------------------