{"id":2039,"date":"2023-08-22T15:56:40","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T12:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publictribune.tv\/?p=2039"},"modified":"2025-12-01T17:14:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:44:50","slug":"%d8%a8%d8%ad%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%af%d8%b3%d8%aa%d9%81%d8%b1%d9%88%d8%b4%db%8c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/2039\/","title":{"rendered":"The Street-Vending Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Street vending has long been one of the common forms of labor in Afghanistan. Old photographs of city markets from decades past make this clear. Here, the term street vending<\/em> is used not in its literal sense\u2014selling goods by hand\u2014but in its broader meaning: selling items from carts, from makeshift stalls, or directly off the ground. What matters is that in recent years, the number of these \u201cprecarious workers\u201d has increased at an unprecedented rate. Most of them are young people. Anyone who has worked as a street vendor or directly observed the experience knows that this type of labor offers the lowest possible economic benefit\u2014and often poses the risk of financial loss. The effort required is immense, while the profit in the best-case scenario is minimal. So what has caused this surge in numbers? What drives people toward such gruelling and barely profitable work\u2014work that could never lead to success in trade or the selling of higher-value goods?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A street vendor is one of the many surpluses<\/em> produced by Afghanistan\u2019s broken economic system\u2014someone who cannot even find a way to \u201csell\u201d their labor. At the final stage of desperation, they acquire whatever goods they can and attempt to sell them directly<\/em> in the streets\u2014directly<\/em> being the key word here, as it reveals the limited chance of success. Raw goods and minimal selling power rarely bring meaningful income. Street vendors are one of the clearest indicators of a dysfunctional and stagnant economic order\u2014an order that produces more and more \u201cexcess lives\u201d every day. For years, the state has communicated through its inaction that these people have no place in its rusted machinery. A government concerned only with public piety has little interest in people\u2019s hunger or survival. In Afghanistan\u2019s small, backward private economy, there is likewise no enthusiasm for new projects or hiring labor. Investment is so rare\u2014and so risky\u2014that no ordinary citizen expects any businessperson to invest their money here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the street-vending crisis in Kabul also reflects deep social instability and economic fragility. It is an economy on the verge of collapse\u2014one that would immediately fall apart if international aid were cut, plunging the country into an even deeper humanitarian disaster. Street vendors acquire their goods day-by-day, in small quantities. A serious fluctuation in currency values or prices would push the majority of them out of work instantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, street vendors make up only a small fraction of Afghanistan\u2019s vast army of unemployed. Unemployment is one of the country\u2019s most critical unresolved issues\u2014one the Taliban regime has taken no meaningful steps to address. Instead, they issue constant decrees about women\u2019s dress, women\u2019s education, the closure of beauty salons, restrictions on music, and constraints on the media. But the real, daily problems of human life have no significant place in their agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regime ruling Kabul is too unaware to understand that the rise in precarious labor is a direct result of its own economic policies. This is why its soldiers chase street vendors from the streets with kicks and whips. In other words, first the regime forces young people into desperation so great that they must<\/em> become street vendors; then, it refuses to let them vend at all. And while it does not know who is truly responsible for this crisis, it refuses to accept even a fraction of the blame. The poverty and helplessness of the people are the result of a collapsed economy\u2014one the regime has brought with it (though the pre-Taliban economy was itself kept alive artificially by massive foreign injections of cash). Expelling vendors from the streets is no solution. Nothing\u2014truly nothing\u2014can be solved with whips and force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The street vendors will return. They will return every day until the time comes when they are no longer forced<\/em> into street vending, when they no longer exist as the \u201cexcess\u201d of a failed economic system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Street vending has long been one of the common forms of labor in Afghanistan. Old photographs of city markets from decades past make this clear. Here, the term street vending is used not in its literal sense\u2014selling goods by hand\u2014but in its broader meaning: selling items from carts, from makeshift stalls, or directly off the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[302],"tags":[312,303,60,279],"class_list":["post-2039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city-stories","tag-312","tag-303","tag-60","tag-279"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2039"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37759,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions\/37759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}