Bread-winning Jawzjan widows seek work opportunities

SHIBERGHAN (Pajhwok): Complaining about economic problems and unemployment, a number of widows in northern Jawzjan province have asked the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) to provide them with work opportunities.

Breadwinners of their families, the widows say if supported and provided employment opportunities by the government, they would be able to send their children to schools for the sake of their future.

Widows: We want work

Mawloda, 35, from Alti Khuaja village of Shiberghan city, told Pajhwok Afghan News she lost her husband a year ago while travelling to Iran and since she was supporting her family of five.

Mawluda said: “I have four children, my husband died a year ago when he travelling to Iran. After his death, I faced a lot of problems. I had to work at people’s houses and do their laundry to support my family.”

She said: “My six years old daughter looks like a two years old child, doctors say she is malnourished.”

She said t her relatives did not help her after her spouse demise and her children often went to the bed hungry because she could not find work every day and she had no money to feed her children.

She asked the government to provide widows and other needy women with employment opportunities, Mawloda said: “If I am not provided with employment opportunity, I will have no option, but to send my two children to an orphanage.”

Farzana, another widow and the only bread winner of her five-member family, lost her husband in a traffic accident nine years ago.

Farzana said: “I am a mother of three sons and a daughter, my eldest son is 15 and I work as a rug weaver from dawn to dusk, my children do some hard odd jobs as well”

She was concerned about the future of her children because they did not go to school: “I hope my children will attend school and study and become engineers or doctors, unfortunately my children are also grappling with the miseries of life and they cannot go to school.”

She said she had never received any kind of support and aid from any humanitarian institutions or relatives and she faced many challenges in her life.

Farzana said: “The voice of widows must be heard by the government of the IEA, we must be provided with employment because we want to work and send our children to school.”

Nargis, another widow who is also struggling with economic problems, said: “There is no work, we do not know what to do, no one is supporting us and we have no other option than begging to feed our children.”

Nargis’s husband was killed in a traffic accident three years ago and she has been living in a rented house along with her two children and hardly pay the house rent.

Experts: Widows must be supported

A Jawzjan university lecturer Gozal Amiri said: “If a woman loses her husband in Afghanistan, such woman faces irreparable psychological, social and economic blows.”

Gozal Amiri continued: “The life for illiterate and widows is harder, because they know nothing about the environment out of their houses, they face psychological problems while some commit suicide.”

To prevent such dangerous incidents, the government must extend some supportive and initiate employment programs for widows and orphans.

Official: Measures must be taken to support widows

Maulvi Shabir Ahmad Maqsood, Martyrs and Disabled department director said that they were trying to improve the living conditions of widows and create a working environment for widows.

Maqsood did not provide more details but said nearly 2,000 widows were registered with the Martyrs and Disabled department and they were trying to get more support for such women from humanitarian organizations.

aw/ma