Feature: Kandahari woman breaks traditions to work as street vendor in Afghanistan

Pushing a handcart to sell cucumbers on the streets in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar city, Kalsom is the first woman that has dared to break the tribal traditions and earn an independent livelihood.

"Poverty forced me to work and on average I can earn 200 Afghan (around 2.9 U.S. dollars) daily through selling cucumbers on the streets of Kandahar city," Kalsom, 45, told Xinhua recently.

In patriarchal Afghanistan where people, especially in rural areas, adhere to ancient tribal traditions, women usually stay at home and men are traditionally responsible as the bread winners.

In Kandahar and neighboring Helmand, Zabul and Uruzgan Provinces where Taliban militants are active and people deeply believe in traditions, women working outside the home is regarded as a taboo.

However, Kalsom, along with her seven-year-old son, Abdul Ghafoor, sells cucumbers from the handcart from dawn till dusk to support her three-member family.

"I have no choice but to work and support my family," Kalsom explained emotionally, adding, "working on the street is not shameful, begging on the street is shameful, sitting idly at home is shameful and not having money is also a shame," she said.

Dressed in a tatty burqa, the tradition veil that covers a woman from head to toe, the hard-working lady said that the murder of her son who had served in the police and was killed three years ago in the war against the Taliban, left her in the lurch and forced her to work outside home to support her family.

Living in a rented mud house in a slum in Kandahar city, Kalsom said that her husband, Malang Khan, is too old to work, whimpering, "I am shouldering all the responsibilities at home and struggling to overcome my adversities day-by-day."

Kalsom's husband, Malang, in talks with Xinhua, didn't hide his opposition to his wife working outside home, but agreed to it.

"Instead of rescuing the needy people, our people laugh at them," Malang Khan said, shaking with anger. "It makes no matter if women working outside home is good or bad, but it is valuable that she earns her family's livelihood through a legal way and with pride."

Nevertheless, the tribal traditions, according to Kalsom, has negatively affected her business as many passersby feel shy when they face a woman selling cucumbers on the streets and avoid talking or buying from her.

Women in Kabul and other big cities have been empowered since the dethroning of the Taliban regime 15 years ago and nowadays have been working as lawmakers, cabinet ministers, businesspeople, artists, singers and are active in many more fields. Endit