With women banned from most jobs in Afghanistan, an embroidery boutique run by 22-year-old Rahima Alavi is a surprising and treasured sight in Bamiyan.
“Spring flowers, tailoring and embroidery,” reads a sign outside Alavi’s small store, which opened in January after a months-long search for work.
“I really feel proud because I can support my family, my parents and three sisters. I can pay the rent,” said Alavi, who was wearing a burgundy coat that had a few pieces of leftover coloured thread stuck to it.
Demonstrating her new skills, she guided material through her sewing machine to create delicate silk leaves and flowers.
Alavi is one of more than five million people who have returned to the country since 2023 from Pakistan and Iran, which have been pushing back Afghans after hosting them for decades.
Having grown up in rural Bamiyan province, where she helped her parents with farm work alongside school, the family moved to Iran in 2021.
“In Iran, there were more job opportunities, and there, men and women can work,” she said.
They picked cabbages for a living near the central city of Isfahan, before returning to Afghanistan in 2024.
“My father couldn’t find a job, nor could I or my sisters. I was very hopeless, because there were no jobs in Bamiyan,” she said, her smile fading.
Only one per cent of women who returned from Pakistan or Iran have found full-time jobs, while two per cent have a business, according to a survey by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Alavi struggled for months, before being picked along with 25 other women for embroidery training under a programme backed by the UN refugee agency.
“I started to have hope, and my hope grew bigger with the course,” she said.
‘No work for women’
Alavi was given a range of equipment including a sewing machine, fabric and cash for a solar panel — essential in a country where power cuts are commonplace.
Her teacher, Rayhana Darabi, described Alavi as “very capable, very talented”.
“She was so dedicated that she would not miss anything and learned everything that same day,” said Darabi.
The embroidery teacher lost her job in December when the programme was discontinued, as part of broader aid cuts hitting people across Afghanistan.
Alavi is the only woman from the programme to have successfully opened a business so far, with her best friend’s support, bringing great pride to those around her.
“We were truly very happy. Women in Afghanistan today — not only in Bamiyan but all over the country — face many challenges and rules and regulations,” said her teacher.
The Afghan Taliban authorities rule by a strict interpretation of Islamic law, barring women from the majority of professions while permitting some to work in industries such as handicrafts.
Alavi appealed to donors to restart the training programme. “Because there is no work for women here,” she said.
Last year, women were the majority among nearly 2,400 people trained under UNHCR programmes.
The agency said this month it needed $216m this year to support displaced people and returnees across the country, but its appeal was currently just eight per cent funded.
With opportunities increasingly limited, Alavi encouraged her fellow returnee women to seek out any chance available.
“Don’t sit at home,” said the entrepreneur, surrounded by embroidered dresses, scarves and tablecloths.
Decorated across one of the scarves, which Alavi said she would like to wear, she had embroidered purple butterflies taking flight.
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