The First ladies Restaurant in Badakhshan

 Written by: Aqsa Sediqi

There are many restaurants in the cities of Afghanistan which provide facilities for the men but most of them do not have such facilities for the women.

AEPO’s writer/producer had a trip to Badakhshan province and she has talked to a woman, Muslima Naimi who has open a restaurant for women in Faizabad city, Badakhshan province.

She said: “my husband was martyred and I faced many economic problems and then I decided to solve them. I talked two months to some women about the opening of a restaurant for women and families. They became happy and encouraged me to open the restaurant as soon as possible.

I chose a place for the restaurant in a square in the middle of the city because there are many private clinics, banks, and offices. I had a plot in Kunduz province. I sold it for 7 hundred thousand Afghanis and built this restaurant for 5 hundred thousand Afghanis. I have hired a cook from Kabul and I have hired two women as waiters, a woman as a cleaner, one woman as the restaurant’s director and I prepare the raw materials for the restaurant. We cook Ashak(a special Afghani dish), burger, pizza, soap, and rice including some special Badakhshi foods.

Afghani Carpets:

Sayed Abbas, a resident of Kabul city, is the owner of a carpet weaving company. Sayed Abbas said to AEPP’s writer/producer about his work: “at the beginning, we were importing wool from abroad and its price was very high but now some women in different parts of Afghanistan spin wool and we purchase it from them and then our workers weave carpets from it. We have hired about 19000 carpet weavers which most of them are women.

All process takes place here inside the company. For example, wool washing, coloring, weaving and washing carpets after weaving by special machines.

When we import machine from abroad, a trainer also comes from the same country and train our trainees. We could produce 6000-7000 square meters carpet monthly. 20% of our products are sold inside Afghanistan and we export 80% of it to foreign countries.