Jun 8, 2023

I can promise you that women working together -- linked, informed and educated -- can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet. --Isabel Allende

Kabul's For Women, By Women, Pop Up Cafe
Savory smells waft out of the cloth-walled pop-up restaurant in Kabul. Banowan-e-Afghan is a dine-in restaurant for women, run by women, a rarity in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. While many restaurants have designated family areas where men can only enter if they're accompanying female relatives, a whole restaurant dedicated to serving and employing women is rare. Many of the women who work here are widows, often the familys sole breadwinner. Two of the female employees prepare the food in their own kitchens and it is brought to the restaurant. If the restaurant does well, owner Samira Muhammadi plans to employ more disadvantaged women and pay better salaries. Ultimately, she wants to make the space larger and hopes to host exhibitions of women's handicrafts where customers could buy clothes or jewelry directly from the women who made them. [more...]

Take Action:For more inspiration, check out this selection of recent writing from Afghan women. [more]