Kabul Woman Begs to Feed Family 5 Years After Taliban Takeover
Updated
Updated · The Associated Press · Aug 15
Kabul Woman Begs to Feed Family 5 Years After Taliban Takeover
3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Aug 15
Summary
Sima, a Kabul woman who says she is about 60, survives by begging and scavenging scrap, bread and waste to support her extended family five years after the Taliban returned to power.
Taliban authorities have banned both begging and waste collection, forcing her to work at night or risk detention even as nearly everything she gathers is reused, sold or burned for fuel.
Three months of detention for her daughter Diba while she was begging left the family unable to properly feed Diba’s breastfeeding infant; the baby died two days after Diba’s release.
Photos from Kabul show Sima mourning at her granddaughter’s grave, then collecting and sorting scraps at home — a portrait of how Taliban-era restrictions and deep poverty now shape daily survival.