Earning money is mostly a man’s business in Afghanistan. But with the help of a cooperative, some women can now support their families themselves – the coveted spice saffron is their source of income
If this story about women begins with a man, there’s a reason. The action takes place in western Afghanistan in a dusty and arid landscape. The Pashtun Zarghun district near the city of Herat lies in the desert, with the flat-topped mountains of the Dau Shakh range stretching out on the horizon and only rivulets running through the broad riverbed of the Hari Rud. We’ve been waiting for enough rain for years. The farmers here have always been barely able to feed their families, but since this summer those who made ends meet are poor and the poor are bitterly poor.
Merajudin Shahabi, 51, from the village of Gabighan, struggled for many years with the hardship that arose from the aridity of the desert. The farmer, a tall man with hands that grew wide from work, grew potatoes and onions, kept a few sheep and cows, and in good years managed to earn 3,000 afghanis, or 30 euros, a month. In the bad years it was only 2,000 afghanis – less than a 25-kilo sack of rice costs. The entire burden of making money was on his shoulders alone, and when a giant like Merajudin says, “I felt very alone,” it gives an idea of the magnitude of that burden.
Bibi Gul, 47, with rosy cheeks and light eyes, is Merajudin’s wife. A lively woman with a mind of her own, you notice that as soon as you get to know her. Bibi Gul took half the burden, if not more, from her husband two years ago. She became part of a women’s cooperative that grows, harvests, processes and markets saffron. Not just any saffron, but one whose quality is considered the best in the world. Two sentences tell what difference it makes for the family. “I’m visible now and I’m respected,” says Bibi Gul. “I’m not alone anymore,” says Merajudin.
On an October day, Bibi Gul is squatting in a field outside the village with three other women, duck-walking forward. The women work their way meter by meter and pick the purple flowers, a type of crocus, with the valuable pistils. There are three stigmas in each goblet, which are later carefully plucked out by hand and later dried on a tray in a special oven, then weighed and poured into jars. Until then, many hours of manual work and many hands are required.
Saffron cooperative in Afghanistan offers women a perspective
Working alongside Bibi Gul is 25-year-old Azita, a shy woman whose face has long lost its youth. Azita’s husband, like an estimated 3.6 million Afghans, is a drug addict and spends the money he earns collecting iron and plastic on his addiction. Azita and her two daughters suffered from hunger for many years, often having only one meal a day. Since joining the cooperative, she has been able to buy groceries and clothes and send her daughters to school. Above all, she is less subject to the whims of her drug-addicted husband, who, she says, understands very well that she has the economic power in the house. “He respects me.” And Bibi Gul adds that, unlike before, women are now included in almost all family decisions. “We were nobody before. Now we have a position.”
The saffron association “Socio-agricultural women of Pashtoon Zarghoon District” is an initiative of the organization Welthungerhilfe. Their local partner Raada (Rehabilitation and Agricultural Development for Afghanistan) is based in Herat, an old trading city on the former Silk Road and the center of Muslim-Persian culture for thousands of years.
On August 12, 2021, the city of 600,000 inhabitants was handed over to the Taliban after days of fighting. After the first anxious weeks, in which hardly anyone dared to go out onto the streets, the situation has normalized. The hustle and bustle has awakened again, along the streets traders offer clothing and spices, it smells of cinnamon and cardamom. The Friday Mosque is protected by Kalashnikov-wielding Taliban who are willing to engage in small talk. But they know nothing about the history of the structure, which was built in 1200 AD and in the following centuries Timurids, Safavids, Mughals and Uzbeks helped to perfect it.
Nazir Ghafoori, the director of Radaa, has his office in a backyard. The man in his fifties is actually a veterinarian, but for many decades he has been committed to the rights and empowerment of women in rural areas. He has launched half a dozen initiatives to give these women merit and minimal freedom.
Hunger in Afghanistan: Many cannot feed their families adequately
The saffron project primarily accepts those women who are struggling with great hardship. “We go to the villages and there we see which families are the poorest and need help most urgently. The prerequisite is that the family owns a piece of land on which the women can cultivate. Then we talk to the village elders and the husbands. We explain to them the advantages of women earning money. We seldom encounter difficulties, for the men’s discernment is great.”
The selected women, there are currently 100, each receive 400 saffron bulbs from Welthungerhilfe and training in cultivation. In order to be able to market their goods independently in the cooperative, there are also literacy and accounting courses. For all questions and problems, the women are advised and closely cared for by Radaa.
Saffron has always been a valuable spice. In some periods of history, dizzying prices were paid for it. The name derives from the Arabic-Persian za faran, which means yellow. Rich Romans adorned their wedding beds with the threads, in the Orient the robes of the rulers were dyed with it, in ancient times the counterfeiting of saffron was a punishable offence. To this day, the spice is an expensive kitchen ingredient.
Before joining the project, Bibi Gul had little knowledge of saffron. “We traditionally use this spice in our kitchen, but we never had the money for it.” She now considers herself an expert and, she proudly says, a businesswoman. “We are proof that Afghanistan’s women are very strong.”
Afghanistan: How saffron offers many women future prospects
The harvest is still small in the first year, only after five years do the saffron bulbs reach their full strength, after seven years they are exhausted. After the harvest, the flowers are processed in the center of the cooperative. A process that requires a lot of patience. Every day eight to ten women with gloves sit at a long table and pluck the three saffron threads from the flowers. They sell the dried red threads in Herat to middlemen who transport the goods to the Middle East. A kilo of saffron currently fetches the equivalent of 800 euros, which is less than a tenth of what is paid for it on the European market.
For Bibi Gul and the women in the initiative, little has changed politically since the Taliban took power. Even before that, most of the villages in the steppe around Herat were under the control of the Islamists, and they allowed them to carry out their projects because they needed the aid organizations to supply the population. Because during the so-called anti-terror war of the USA and NATO, poverty in Afghanistan increased every year. The reasons for this are not only the droughts, but also the many fighting that people are fleeing, the US military drone strikes that killed hundreds of civilians, the corruption in the Afghan government and the marginalization of the rural population.
The provinces rarely received any of the money that the warring West so willingly and generously gave to the rulers to ensure their cooperation and support. The Afghan side hardly invested in poverty alleviation, the health system and infrastructure; these tasks were left to the aid organizations.
With the complete seizure of power by the Islamists in Afghanistan and their announcement of a rigid Islamic government that denies women the right to work and education, the anxious question of the continued existence of the cooperative initially arose. The fact that the women’s organization is allowed to continue working is thanks to negotiations by Welthungerhilfe and Raada’s lobbying work. Ghafoori explains that the Taliban who rule the villages around Herat are locals who understand the precarious living conditions of the people.
“Many men are unemployed or earn very little money. At least a quarter of all Afghan families are supported entirely by mothers or daughters, and another quarter with their help. Denying them cooperation would lead to catastrophic hardship. Among the women who grow saffron are some whose husbands belong to the Taliban.”
Saffron cultivation in Afghanistan: Pandemic and Taliban cause economic downturn
From an economic point of view, the new situation is nevertheless an existential threat. The Taliban government has no money, more than 70 percent of all people in Afghanistan are now unemployed. The UN warns of famine if large-scale humanitarian aid does not continue to flow into the country. In addition, winter is just around the corner, and people don’t have the money for heating. The cost of staples like rice, flour and oil have increased by 30 to 50 percent. Malnourished children are already lying in the hospitals, and the number of beggars in the cities has multiplied.
The women’s cooperative is also suffering from the economic downturn. The price of saffron fell by 50 percent at the beginning of the corona pandemic and is now falling further. The banking system doesn’t work, exporting abroad has become difficult if not impossible. The onions for the next sowing could not be delivered this year either because of the closed borders. “These are dark times,” says Ghafoori, “and we can only hope that they will become lighter again.”
