In this photo taken on May 20, 2019, an Afghan schoolgirl walks to school along a wall painted with handprints on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif. (Photo: AFP)
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Like other regions of the insurgency-battered Afghanistan, the northern Mazar-i-Sharif city has been facing security threats that undermine businesses, but Madiha Amiri is ambitious and brave enough to open a designing shop here.
"Running a business is difficult but you have to persist, be patient and struggle to win," said Amiri.
Walking around her shop to check the work of her employees, Amiri, 26, told Xinhua that her aim is to design and produce new style outfits to cater to more clients and earn more money.
Attired in traditional dress to respect local culture, the ambitious entrepreneur muttered that as a woman, running a business in a conservative society like Afghanistan is difficult, if not impossible.
In the insurgency-plagued and conservative country, where many people, especially in rural areas, regard women working outside home as a taboo, it is not free of risk for her to run a business.
Among recent attacks on women in Afghanistan, unidentified armed men gunned down three female health workers in the eastern Jalalabad city on Tuesday.
Amiri, a graduate of Balkh University majoring in engineering, said softly that she preferred to run a business instead of working as an engineer with government or private companies.
Running a business can create job opportunities, she said.
"I established my business two years ago and currently 50 women are working for me," Amiri said with pride.
She also hopes that she could employ more women and girls by further developing her business in future.
"Both tailoring and designing are fine arts and I have learned a lot from the designing shop and get reasonable income here to support myself and my family," said Basira Nazari, a staff of the shop.
