Hard Work, Low Pay for Afghan Wool Workers

Fatima, 60, works in a grimy, reeking basement cleaning sheep wool from seven am until four pm each day.

She separates the brown, white and black fibres, known as karakul, with hands that are covered in wounds and scratches. As she works, she covers her nose and mouth with her scarf to block out the dust and odour from the wool, as well as the noxious fumes of the chemical agents she uses to clean it.

“I am in this dust from morning to late afternoon, and the wool’s bad smell really bothers me. But I have no other choice but to work here, otherwise, who will pay for my needs and support my grandsons?” she asked.

At her age, Fatima continued, she needed some rest. But she could not afford to retire, even though she only earned two dollars a day, wages she complains are too low considering the miserable conditions she has to endure.

“I can’t talk to my boss about my wages,” Fatima said. “If I do, I will get fired. And then I will go hungry.”

Herat’s karakul industry employs up to 400 women who must endure poor conditions, long hours and low wages. Officials say that factory owners are exploiting their overwhelmingly female workforce, while employers argue that they are providing work to needy women at a time of rampant unemployment in Afghanistan.

Ghulam Sideeq Nazari, deputy head of the Nazari Company, manages a karakul processing factory in Herat province.

He agreed that the work was hard and the wages low, although he added that employees received two free meals a day.

“At least this way we provide these women with work,” he said. “Although we understand their economic problems, we cannot afford to pay them more.”

Human rights officials say that the situation has been made worse due to the lack of an official minimum wage.

Abdul Qahar Rahimi, head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in Heart, said that the government needed to tackle this issue.

“Unfortunately, we do not have a mechanism to calculate [fair] wages and pay the labourers on hourly basis. Therefore… employers exploit their authority and the economic needs of their staff to squeeze the labourers,” he said.

It was very hard to intervene in such situations, Rahimi continued, adding, “The department of labour and social affairs should try harder in this area to improve employment conditions.”

However, Wakeel Ahmad Sohail - head of the provincial department for labour, social affairs, martyrs and the disabled – said they were doing all they could.

“We have held meetings with managers to explain the labour law and give them advice,” he said, lamenting that his department lacked the power to implement the law itself.

As well as long hours and poor wages, workers face risks to their health, he continued, adding, “Hard labour, night shifts and work that endangers health and is carried out in basements are the jobs for which, according to law, women cannot be hired.”

Health authorities say that few employers took the trouble to minimise risk to their employees.

Mohammad Asif Kabeer, acting head of Herat’s department of public health, said that karakul processing could lead to problems including skin diseases and tuberculosis.

“Those who work in karakul cleaning and similar places face many health risks,” he said.

One worker, Kareema, is well aware of the dangers associated with handling with sheep’s wool. But she said that she had no choice but to continue working.

“This work caused me to develop tuberculosis,” Kareema explained. “I can’t breathe properly as I walk, even now. But what can I do?”

Afghan labour law mandates that employers need to provide “proper clothing, special shoes, masks, glasses, gloves, and other necessary protective work equipment” for free in environments where this is required.

Nazari, the manager of a Karak factory in Herat, said that they did make some safety equipment available but that workers chose not to use it.

“It is true to say that we do not provide employees with gloves, because then they cannot work properly,” he said. “However, they are provided with other equipment for their use like masks. We fired four women workers [for not wearing masks] some days ago.”

Provincial council member Sakeena Hosaini rejected such claims, arguing that factory inspectors had found no sign of any safety measures.

 “When we visited and asked the labourers, we unfortunately found that these firms have not budgeted even one Afghani to buy masks and other equipment.”

Women’s rights activist Tahira Sajadi said that the government was not fulfilling its responsibilities to women, which included facilitating employment.

“Women’s economic burdens are among the reasons that employers can abuse them,” she said.

Sajadi said that rights activists had been prevented from researching working conditions at karakul processing firms.

 “When we make arrangements to meet the labourers, ahead of time employers threaten their workers that if they complain to us they will be fired. This is why they can’t share their problems with us.”

The hundreds of women cleaning karakul each day in Herat have little hope that their situations will improve.

Lal Bibi, 60, said that she was struggling to work each day, despite her ill health, because she did not have the time or sufficient funds to seek medical treatment.

“I earn two dollars a day, and this is why I have not been able to visit a doctor,” she said.

“For the last few months I have had difficulty breathing, and coughing doesn’t help either. I get weaker and weaker by the day,” Lal Bibi, continued. “God knows that I am not well enough to work.”

This report was produced under IWPR’s Promoting Human Rights and Good Governance in Afghanistan initiative, funded by the European Union Delegation to Afghanistan.