Jawzjan women demand specific place for selling handicrafts

SHIBERGHAN (Pajhwok): Women who sell handicrafts complain about the lack of a suitable place for their business in Shiberghan, the capital of northern Jawzjan province.

However, the Shiberghan municipality says it is striving to find a suitable place for these women.

Besides household chores, most women in Jawzjan also make handicrafts and do embroidery works, bead making, neck, and Afghani clothes and then sell these items in the market.

Farzana, 40, who has been selling handicrafts on the streets of Shiberghan for nine years, complained about the lack of a suitable place to sell her products and wanted the government to pay serious attention to it.

“I’m a widow, I earn a living by selling handicrafts. I have two children, here we buy second-hand goods and sell them at a low price,” she explained.

Complaining about economic hardships, she said: “I’m the breadwinner of the house, we have many problems, but we don’t have a specific place to carry our business forward.”

Meanwhile, Shabnam, another seller of handicrafts, also complained about the lack of a suitable place to sell her goods.

“I have been selling handicrafts for seven years. I take care of the house myself. I have four children. I sell handicrafts on the streets from morning to evening. There are hand-embroidered clothes for children, women and men.”

She was also worried about the lack of buyers and said: “Our sales are not good, we cannot sell a pair of clothes in a week. If the government pays a little attention to us and creates a special market for women, it will be very good.” .”

Marzia, another handicrafts seller in Shiberghan, also called it important to build a permanent place for women selling handicrafts and added: “We sell handicrafts on wet ground in winter and under the scorching sun in summer.”

“We used to have a good sale, our customers would come from districts and villages, but recently, our sales have declined and we are at a loss,” she added.

She urged the municipality to find a special place for women to sell handicrafts in the city, but the rent should not be too high.

But Shiberghan mayor Maulvi Habibullah Qana said most of these craftswomen were not ready to go to the special markets considered for them.

He said that he was trying to allocate a place for women’s handicrafts. He said in the proposed place, the women would pay rent and market their products.

He added: “We have collected these women from the streets several times and sent them to special places, but most of them were unable to pay the rent due to lack of sales. Now we are trying to find a suitable place without rent.”

sa/ma

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