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| Afghanistan's army of workers take to the country's sun-baked fields to pick the popular spice. (File photo by= AFP/Hoshang Hashimi) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] HERAT: An Afghan business leader who employs hundreds of women on her saffron fields has vowed to speak up for the rights of her workers, and "not remain silent" under Taliban rule.
AFP said that many fear a return to their brutally oppressive rule from 1996 to 2001.
"We will raise our voice so that it reaches their ears," said Shafiqeh Attai, who started her saffron company in the western city of Herat in 2007. Attai's business, the Pashton Zarghon Saffron Women's Company, produces, processes, packages, and exports the world's most expensive spice with an almost exclusively female workforce. More than 1,000 women pick the brightly colored crocuses across the company's 25ha of land in the Pashton Zarghon district of Herat province, which borders Iran. Attai is concerned not just about the future of her business, but also for women across Afghanistan who are living in limbo, uncertain about jobs, education, and representation in government.
Another 55ha is independently owned and operates under the collective that Attai set up for women saffron pickers, who are represented by union leaders. Herat province produces the vast majority of Afghanistan's saffron. At more than US$5,000 per kilogram, saffron is the world's most expensive spice, and Attai's company produces between 200kg and 500kg each year.
