Posted on Jul 17, 2022
In Kabul, a new ritual: Hungry women wait for bread outside bakeries
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https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/07/17/ [login to see] /in-kabul-a-new-ritual-hungry-women-wait-for-bread-outside-bakeries
In the late afternoons in Kabul, a familiar ritual takes place as Afghans head to bakeries to buy fresh flat loaves for dinner.
But since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan last August, another ritual has emerged: Women in blue burqas settle in front of the city's upscale bakeries, silently waiting for charitable passersby to purchase bread for them.
They include Khadija, a mother of nine young daughters. Every day, she walks with swollen feet and blackened toenails to this bakery from the distant hilltop slum where she has lived all her life. Then she waits in her tattered burqa, endlessly stitched and mended.
"My daughters cry from hunger," says Khadija, who like other women interviewed, requests only her first name be used for the shame she feels begging. She guesses her age at about 30.
The sight of the women reflects how sharply the country's economy has unraveled, and how its people's resilience has been depleted by multiple crises. They have been battered by conflict, pandemic closures, three droughts and an earthquake over the past five years.
In the late afternoons in Kabul, a familiar ritual takes place as Afghans head to bakeries to buy fresh flat loaves for dinner.
But since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan last August, another ritual has emerged: Women in blue burqas settle in front of the city's upscale bakeries, silently waiting for charitable passersby to purchase bread for them.
They include Khadija, a mother of nine young daughters. Every day, she walks with swollen feet and blackened toenails to this bakery from the distant hilltop slum where she has lived all her life. Then she waits in her tattered burqa, endlessly stitched and mended.
"My daughters cry from hunger," says Khadija, who like other women interviewed, requests only her first name be used for the shame she feels begging. She guesses her age at about 30.
The sight of the women reflects how sharply the country's economy has unraveled, and how its people's resilience has been depleted by multiple crises. They have been battered by conflict, pandemic closures, three droughts and an earthquake over the past five years.
In Kabul, a new ritual: Hungry women wait for bread outside bakeries
Posted from npr.org
Kabul
Food/Chow
Baking
Taliban
Economics
Posted 2 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."After the Taliban came to power the pension stopped. One son dropped out of college because the family could no longer afford tuition. She supports another son because his salary as a teacher was cut dramatically after the takeover. She sold her apartment to keep them all going, but that money is running out. "I have never opened my hands to ask for charity in my life," she says. "It felt so hard to ask."
Outside, men with wheelbarrows wait in a row, hoping those receiving food aid will need help to cart it away. They get a 2-cent tip for the work.
One of the men, Mohammad Hussein, guesses he's about 60 years old. He's tied a piece of cloth around his waist to keep his pants up. "We carry other people's food but we are hungry," he says. "Nobody gives us food." Other men surround us and echo him: "Nobody gives us food. Help us."
They're unlikely to get help. Lee, from the World Food Program, says they don't have the money to expand their aid program. She says they're trying to plan for the winter, when even more Afghans are expected to go hungry."
..."After the Taliban came to power the pension stopped. One son dropped out of college because the family could no longer afford tuition. She supports another son because his salary as a teacher was cut dramatically after the takeover. She sold her apartment to keep them all going, but that money is running out. "I have never opened my hands to ask for charity in my life," she says. "It felt so hard to ask."
Outside, men with wheelbarrows wait in a row, hoping those receiving food aid will need help to cart it away. They get a 2-cent tip for the work.
One of the men, Mohammad Hussein, guesses he's about 60 years old. He's tied a piece of cloth around his waist to keep his pants up. "We carry other people's food but we are hungry," he says. "Nobody gives us food." Other men surround us and echo him: "Nobody gives us food. Help us."
They're unlikely to get help. Lee, from the World Food Program, says they don't have the money to expand their aid program. She says they're trying to plan for the winter, when even more Afghans are expected to go hungry."
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