Afghan immigrant women in Ira
Difficulties in the life of Afghan women in Iran
Afghan women immigrate to Iran hoping to work and improve their lives
19year-old Mozhgan with her family of seven leave Kabul after the Taliban’s success
Mozhgan, who finished the twelfth grade and wanted to get higher education, but with the ban on girls’ education and the closure of schools and universities, she no longer had a reason to stay in Afghanistan.
Mezhgan’s older brothers both worked and studied, but after the fall of the regime, they became unemployed and had to leave the country.
Mozhgan sews in an Iranian factory to help her family and improve their economic situation.
Mozhgan says that there is a lot of work pressure, but the wages are very low, many factories pay a very low salary to Afghan migrant workers with a very high workload.
Mozhgan says that now is the time for me and my peers to study, but many Afghan girls were displaced and have to work to advance their lives.
She adds that she is busy sewing from morning to night and cannot continue her studies online at night due to extreme fatigue.
Nazifeh Ahmadi is a hairdresser who immigrated to Iran after the closure of hairdressing salons and the loss of her job by the Taliban.
she also works as a tailor in a factory. she complains about a lot of work but low pay.
Nazifeh says that she was born 37 years ago in a family that was not in a good economic situation, only their father prepared bread for them.
she has many sisters and one brother who is younger than all the sisters. Nazifeh said, my older sister was trying to do something to help with my father to living expenses.
she says, “I was nine years old when I went to the neighbor’s house to learn makeup. I learned this profession there and gradually earned money. I was happy because I was able to make my father’s hand lighter.”
she said with a cold sigh, “After a few years, when I became a teacher for myself, I wanted to work independently and more, but in Iran, an Afghan immigrant was not allowed to open a shop or barber shop, and I could not work independently either.”
Nazifeh and her family decide to return to there country Afghanistan, Mrs. Natifeh continues her work in Afghanistan to help her husband.
Her work was going well and there were no financial problems. Mrs. Ahmadi decided to continue her studies, which she had left unfinished due to economic problems, and started higher education in one of the universities. And at the same time, she runs two beauty and makeup salons.
But with the change of the system and the prohibition of work and education, Nazifa and her children migrated again.
Nazifa’s husband died a few years ago due to his illness.
She is the sole guardian of his three children, two daughters and one son.
Even Iranian newspapers have reported on the abandonment of Afghan experts and artists and have written that Afghan women in the Islamic Republic of Iran are recluses and isolated despite having education.
Iran’s HamMihan newspaper wrote this news in one of its editions and added that “most Afghan women are recluses and isolated despite their education.”
On the part of the immigration rights activists, they believe that the situation of Afghan immigrants in Iran, especially women, has always been in a critical and painful situation, and the reason for this is that there is no legislation for immigrants and there is no protection law for immigrants in Iran. does not have.
Iranian newspaper (Ham Mihan); With the publication of the report on (December 11, 2023) under the title (Afghan migrant women; invisible workers) said; Afghan women have a significant activity in the production sector in Iran.
This newspaper stated that most of these women are busy working with low wages in Clay ovens and undergrounds.
The Iranian newspaper adds; Women immigrate to Iran hoping to improve their employment situation, but Afghan women are exploited and exploited in Iran.
According to the report of Ham Mihan newspaper in Iran, four to five million immigrants, ninety percent of whom are Afghans, live in Iran, and 41 percent of them are women. With the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the deprivation of women from work and education based on the orders of the Taliban, migration Afghan women to Iran has accelerated.
Sohila Gulistani