April 1, 2007
Women renting out cell phone minutes in Afghanistan
A fascinating article from Forbes on women renting out cell phone minutes or providing tech help in Afghanistan, to feed their families and the abuse they must endure for working with men. [via digg]
"For doing her job, Sukhriya Hassani gets hassled by goons, who call her "prostitute" and threaten to shut down her business. Her sin: doing business with men. But the 25-year-old widow needs the $300 a month she earns--a lavish income in Afghanistan--by renting out cellular phone service by the call minute (10 cents for domestic, 45 for international). Her family of eight depends on her.
Hassani is one of 50 Afghan women who earn such commissions by working for a cell company called Roshan ("light" in Dari and Pashto). It is one of Afghanistan's largest private businesses, with 850 employees, 23% of them women. The company has spread across 175 cities and villages and provide mobile phone service to 1.2 million customers--half the market.
... Roshan is committed to putting women to work, but the very notion is so radical here that recruiters often don't even pay a visit to a family without getting a referral first. Even then, male Roshan managers deal with the father, the husband or a son. To clinch the deal the recruiters invite the patriarchs to meet office managers and see for themselves that Roshan is a respectable business."
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