Five years on, Kabul woman scavenges to keep family alive
A Kabul woman's daily struggle to support her family by scavenging and begging, five years after the Taliban's return to power.
In the hills above Kabul, a woman named Sima spends her days walking through cemeteries, searching for plastic, scrap metal, and anything else that might hold value. The items she finds are either sold or brought home to be used as fuel for cooking and warmth during the winter months.
Five years after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, formal work remains scarce. Sima, who believes she is around 60 years old but does not know her exact age, helps support her extended family. Their survival depends largely on begging and collecting bread, scrap, and recyclable waste.
Nothing is wasted. Bread received from bakeries or passersby is resold cheaply to neighbors. Dry bread gathered from the ground is saved and sold to livestock owners. Damaged tomatoes are dried for later use, watermelon rinds are turned into a homemade pickle called torshi, and meat received during Eid al-Adha is dried and stored for the winter.
These small economies carry significant risks. The Taliban have prohibited both begging and waste collection, and those caught can be detained. For women like Sima, supporting their families means navigating severe poverty alongside increasingly restricted public life. She sometimes waits until nightfall to beg, when she feels less exposed on Kabul's streets.
A few months ago, Sima's daughter, Diba, was detained while begging and held for three months. At the time, Diba had a breastfeeding baby. During her absence, the family struggled to provide enough milk and suitable food for the infant. Two days after Diba was released, her baby died.
Sima now visits the child's grave. The cemetery serves a dual purpose: it is a place of mourning, and also one of the locations where she searches for discarded material that might help the family survive.
At home, almost everything gathered outside finds a purpose. Food is preserved for another season, and salvaged materials wait to be sold or burned for fuel. Sima sorts through her collection while her family stays close by.
The family lives from one day's findings to the next. Tomatoes drying on a cloth, scraps gathered from the earth, carefully preserved food, and a few coins resting in Sima's hands paint a picture of a life where almost nothing can simply be thrown away.