Under Taliban regime poor Afghan women beg at bakeries to feed children

New Delhi, Nov 3:  Following the regime change in Afghanistan, poverty has risen to the point where dozens of women line up in front of bakeries in capital Kabul daily to beg for bread and keep their children alive, Pajhwok News reported.

Sepna, a resident of Charahi Qambar area of Kabul, is a widow who begs daily for survival of her six children. "I beg every day, but often no one gives me money. I stay in front of bakery until late evening so someone donate me some bread because my children stay hungry during night, I do it due to my obligation."

"My husband was a policeman who had died. I used to work in the house of a businessman who, after the fall of the previous government, fled Afghanistan," she said.

Sepna is not the only one standing in front of the bakery to save her children. Several other women are sitting next to her, waiting for someone to buy bread for them, the report said.

Banafshah, a resident of Kota-i-Sangi area of Kabul, wearing a black chador, was sitting in front of a bakery in the second police district of Kabul with other poor women to find some bread to feed her children. "I come here before 5 p.m. and stay here until 7 p.m. until I get 10 breads, then I go home," she said, as per the report.

Banafshah, who is the only breadwinner in her family of ten, says her husband is handicapped and unable to work.

"My children stay hungry for days because no one donates to the poor, it was good in the previous government, people lived well. But now people face with bad situation, I am obliged to come to the bakery," she said.

Suhrab, owner of one of bakeries in Dahan-i-Bagh area of Kabul city, said, "Before the fall of (Ashraf) Ghani government, a few beggars used to come every day, but now you can see they stand in lines in front of every bakery."

"We bake bread three times a day, and we will definitely help them once in three times. There are also other good people who donate bread to these beggars," he said.

Sobhanallah, a baker in Kabul's Parwan-i-Dwom area, also said that dozens of women line up in front of their bakery every day so they are donated some bread, the report said.

"Every day in our bakery, 30 to 40 women sit in line to get some bread," he said. "We help each of them with a few loaves of bread, something we can do, most of these women are poor and widowed."

He termed the ongoing situation worrisome and said: "The situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating with each passing day, all people earn only enough to feed themselves, there was poverty in the previous government and women used to come here, but it is getting serious now."