A Jawzjan widow who educated her 7 children

SHIBERGHAN (Pajhwok): A widowed woman in northern Jawzjan province saved her seven children from begging on streets and made her life comfortable by selling dairy products in a misogynic environment.

The woman, Sharifa, is 55 years old and is the mother of seven educated children. In an interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, she said the Taliban during their ‘dark’ regime severely tortured her husband and he could not recover from his pains and wounds and died.

“I tried a lot inside the country and even went to Pakistani hospitals to treat my husband, but my efforts could not save him,” she said.

With many good memories of her husband still on her mind, Sharifa sighed for separation from her spouse but said she was still able to provide a good life to her children and not let them feel deprived.

She was alone with her children after the death of her husband and was struggling after having spent all her assets on treatment of her spouse.

 “We had no proper house for living, I finally decided and built three rooms from mud with my children, I prepared a bag for my son to sell chewing gums and cigarettes, my son’s sales improved and we built a booth for him but one night thieves robbed our stall and we started again from zero,” she said.

She said next she started selling dairy products such as milk, yogurt, butter, cheese and others from local sources to shops.

“I educated my seven children thanks to my dairy business, I now want to engage my third son, some of my children have completed bachelor’s and others are in high school, I am their power and I am happy with my income,” Sharifa added. She said she recently opened a shop for her younger son to make him busy.

Zabihullah, a shopkeeper in Shiberghan, who buys dairy products from Sharifa, said, “I buy around 80 kilograms of dairy products from this woman a day, she brings butter, yogurt, curd, milk and other products.” He said the products the woman prepared were of high quality and had good market.

“I know buying products from this woman is good both for me and her, I meet the requirements of customers and she meets the needs of her family,” he added.

Halima, in charge of families coordination affairs at the Agriculture who suffer from bad economy in training programs for preparing dairy products and animal husbandry.”

“One of these women is Sharifa who was able to make her life better,” she said, adding the aim of their programs was to empower women so they were able to stand on their feet and improve their living standard.

mds/ma