Afghans fight economic destruction with Bitcoin, video games and a new Chinatown

Businesses are finding increasingly inventive ways to meet challenges of economy broken by Taliban takeover

Military leaders attend a flag-lowering ceremony in Afghanistan on June 24, 2021 as the UK’s contribution in the country draws to a close. A number of troops were to remain to offer diplomatic assurance to the international community in Kabul. Getty Images

A member of the Afghan security personnel looks distraught as he stands guard at the site of a car bomb explosion near the defence minister's home in Kabul, on August 4, 2021. AFP

Security officials inspect the scene of an attack on Dawa Khan Menapal, the head of the Afghan government's information centre, in Kabul on August 6, 2021. Taliban militants shot him dead. EPA

People are stranded at the Pakistani-Afghan border which has been closed by the Taliban, who have taken control of the Afghan side, on August 9, 2021. EPA

US special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad (2nd L) arrives at a hotel in Qatar's capital Doha for a meeting on the escalating conflict in Afghanistan, on August 10, 2021. AFP

Taliban fighters driving through Herat, Afghanistan's third-biggest city, on August 13, 2021 after under-siege government forces had pulled out the previous day. AFP

Taliban militants gather in the main square after taking control of Kandahar, Afghanistan, on August 13, 2021. The fall of Kandahar came hours after the Taliban had captured Herat. EPA

Afghanistan's president Ashraf Ghani and acting defence minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi visit military corps in Kabul on August 14, 2021. Reuters

Internally displaced families from northern provinces, who fled from their homes due to the fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces, take shelter in a public park in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 14, 2021. EPA

People at the border checkpoint at Chaman, Pakistan on August 15, 2021. Pakistani authorities had reopened the frontier with Afghanistan on August 13 after several days of closure. EPA

Afghan police on duty on August 15, 2021 after the Taliban had taken over Kandahar. The militants have by this stage reached the outskirts of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. EPA

Ahmadullah Muttaqi, the Taliban's director for information and culture, talks to journalists after the government in Kandahar had surrendered to the militants. EPA

Taliban fighters and local people sit on an Afghan National Army armoured vehicle on a street in Jalalabad province on August 15, 2021. AFP

Afghan families flee Kabul on August 15, 2021. The Taliban said they do not intend to enter Kabul 'by force or war, but to negotiate with the other side to enter peacefully". Getty Images

Tens of thousands of people attempt to flee Afghanistan to escape the hardline rule expected under the Taliban, on August 15, 2021. AFP

Taliban fighters take control of the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul, after the president Ashraf Ghani had fled the country, on August 15, 2021. AP

Hundreds of people run alongside a US Air Force transport plane on the runway of the international airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021, desperate to escape the Taliban capture of their country. Some held on to the jet as it took off and fell to their death. AP

Thousands of Afghans rush to the Hamid Karzai International Airport as they try to flee the Afghan capital of Kabul, on August 16, 2021. Getty Images

A US soldier points his gun at a man at Kabul airport on August 16, 2021, after a swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war. Thousands of people mobbed the airport in a bid to flee. AFP

Crowds on the tarmac of Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan, on August 16, 2021. EPA

People clamber on top a plane at the Kabul airport on August 16, 2021. AFP

These Afghan passengers made it. They sit inside a plane and wait to leave Kabul. AFP

Afghan women, holding placards, gather to demand the protection of women's rights in front of the Presidential Palace in Kabul, on August 17, 2021. Getty Images

British citizens living in Afghanistan board a military plane to leave Kabul Airport, on August 16, 2021. Reuters

Luggage belonging to Afghan people, who were waiting to be evacuated. at the site of two suicide bombs, which killed scores of people including 13 US troops, at Kabul airport on August 27, 2021. AFP

Afghans, including those who worked for the US, Nato, the European Union and the United Nations, wait outside Hamid Karzai International Airport to flee the country, after Taliban took control of Kabul, on August 17, 2021. EPA

People queue at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border point in Chaman on August 17, 2021 to cross back to Afghanistan. AFP

People wait to board a French military transport plane on August 17, 2021 to escape Kabul and Taliban rule. AFP

Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesman, gives his first press conference in Kabul on August 17, 2021. The new leadership said it would not seek revenge on those who had fought against them and would protect the rights of Afghan women within the rules of Sharia. EPA

Young men who say they deserted the Afghan military trudge through the countryside in Tatvan, eastern Turkey, on August 17, 2021. Turkey was concerned about increased migration across the Iranian border as Afghans fled from the Taliban. AP

A young demonstrator at a vigil in support of Afghanistan at the West Los Angeles Federal Building, California on August 17, 2021. EPA

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan holds a press briefing to talk about the recent events in Afghanistan, at the White House on August 17,2021. EPA

A Taliban fighter walks past a beauty salon with images of women defaced using spray paint in Shar-e-Naw in Kabul on August 18, 2021. AFP

People among the first evacuees from Kabul, arrive at Frankfurt International Airport in western Germany in the early hours of August 18, 2021. AFP

A transport plane evacuating refugees out of Afghanistan lands at Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai, August 19, 2021. Pawan Singh / The National

Afghanistan's former president Ashraf Ghani talks in video message, somewhere in the UAE, on August 18, 2021, in his first media appearance since the fall of Kabul only days earlier. Reuters

Displaced children wait for the next flight at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul on August 19, 2021. AFP

An Afghan man waves a national flag to celebrate the 102nd Independence Day of Afghanistan in Kabul on August 19, 2021, days after the Taliban's military takeover of the country. AFP

The US military helps to reunite families at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 20, 2021. AFP

A US Marine comforts an infant while they wait for the mother during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 21, 2021. Reuters

New personnel in the Afghan security forces take part in military training in Panjshir province on August 21, 2021. AFP

US President Joe Biden speaks to his national security team during a briefing on the situation in Afghanistan, on August 22, 2021, in Washington. AFP

Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard welcomes members of Afghanistan's robotics team after arriving in Mexico to apply for humanitarian status on August 24, 2021. Reuters

Belongings of Afghan people, who were evacuated from Kabul, are laid on the ground at Torrejon Military Air Base on August 24, 2021 in Madrid. Getty Images

Volunteers and medical staff unload bodies from a pickup truck outside a hospital after two powerful explosions, which killed at least six people, outside the airport in Kabul on August 26, 2021. AFP

Flag-draped coffins of service members killed in action are loaded on to a transport aircraft during a ramp ceremony at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 27, 2021. Reuters

Afghan evacuees at the Emirates Humanitarian City, Abu Dhabi, on August 28, 2021. Victor Besa / The National

Smoke billows after an explosion near the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul on August 29, 2021. EPA

A vigil for Max Soviak, one of 13 US service members killed in the airport suicide bombing in Afghanistan's capital Kabul, in Berlin Heights, Ohio on August 29, 2021. Reuters

A Taliban member stands guard near a vehicle which was used to fire rockets at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 30, 2021. EPA

World Health Organisation supplies land in Afghanistan. Photo: WHO

Major Gen Chris Donahue, commander of the US Army 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, boards a C-17 cargo plane at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 30, 2021. His departure closes the US mission to evacuate US citizens, Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants and vulnerable Afghans. AFP

Fireworks after the last US aircraft took off from the airport in Kabul early on August 31, 2021, signalling its complete withdrawal after 20 years in the country. AFP

Afghans wait for the banks to open in Kabul on August 31, 2021. AFP

An Afghan Air Force A-29 attack aircraft inside a hangar at the airport in Kabul on August 31, 2021, after the US pulled all its troops out of the country. AFP

Taliban fighters sit in the cockpit of an Afghan Air Force aircraft at the airport in Kabul on August 31, 2021. AFP

An Afghan resistance movement and anti-Taliban uprising forces rest as they patrol on a hilltop in Panjshir province on September 1,2021. Panjshir remains the last major holdout of anti-Taliban forces led by Ahmad Massoud, son of the famed mujahideen leader Ahmed Shah Massoud. AFP

The UAE sends a plane carrying urgent medical and food aid to Afghanistan, as part of its contribution to provide the basic and necessary needs of thousands of Afghan families, especially the most vulnerable groups such as women, children and the elderly, September 3, 2021. Wam

Afghan women's rights defenders and civil activists protest to call on the Taliban for the preservation of their achievements and education, in front of the presidential palace in Kabul on September 3, 2021. Reuters

The main money exchange market in Kabul reopens on September 4, 10 days after the Taliban takeover. Currency dealers have been hit hard by the fall in value of the Afghani currency. EPA

Passengers board a plane as domestic flights resume across Afghanistan, at Ahmad Shah Baba International Airport in Kandahar on September 5, 2021. EPA

Protesters reflected in the sunglasses of a demonstrator during a rally in support of Afghanistan's people after the takeover of the country by the Taliban, at the Place de la Republique, in Paris on September 5, 2021. AFP

A Taliban fighter stands guard at a market in Kabul on September 5, 2021. AFP

A suspected ISIS member sits blindfolded in a Taliban Special Forces' car in Kabul on September 5, 2021. Reuters

Children stand outside the former US embassy in Kabul where the banner of the 'Islamic Emirate' has replaced previous murals, on September 8, 2021. Stefanie Glinski for The National

A veiled student speaks to a gathering of female students before a pro-Taliban rally at the Shaheed Rabbani Education University in Kabul on September 11, 2021. AFP

Taliban fighters take a selfie after they stormed and overran the home of the Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum in the Sherpur neighborhood of Kabul. on September 11, 2021. AFP

Members of Afghanistan's national girls football team arrive at the Pakistan Football Federation in Lahore on September 15, 2021, a month after the hardline Taliban swept back into power. AFP

Afghan students separated by a partition attend a class at Mirwais Neeka University in Kandahar on September 20, 2021. The Taliban had officially announced the segregation of male and female students in all government and private universities. EPA

A young girl from Afghanistan hides under a truck carrying fruit and vegetables as she attempts to smuggle herself over the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan on September 12, 2021. Everyday dozens of children from Afghanistan smuggle themselves over the border into Pakistan to sell Paan and other goods before smuggling themselves back again. At least one child is injured each day trying to cross the border like this. Oliver Marsden for The National

Afghan girls at a school in Kandahar on September 26, 2021. AFP

Afghans gather outside the passport office after Taliban officials announced they will start issuing passports to its citizens again, in Kabul, October 6, 2021. Reuters

Sohail Ahmadi, an Afghan baby boy who went missing during the disordered evacuation process in Kabul after the takeover by the Taliban in August 2021, is reunited with his grandfather and aunt on January 10, 2022. EPA

Zakia, an economics student who dropped out of university after the Taliban took power, at her home on the outskirts of Kabul on January 24, 2022. AFP

A burqa-clad woman walks along a street in Kabul on May 7, 2022. The Taliban had just imposed some of the harshest restrictions on Afghanistan's women since they seized power, ordering them to cover fully in public, ideally with the traditional burqa. AFP

An Afghan vendor displays a burqa at his shop at Mandawi market in Kabul on May 8, 2022. AFP

Khatira Ahmadi (L) and Tehmina (R), Afghan presenters at Tolo TV, read news at the studio in Kabul on May 23. Female television presenters and reporters in Afghanistan appeared with their faces covered to comply with a mandate issued by the Taliban. EPA

Afghan women prisoners in Kandahar on July 26. EPA

Sulaiman bin Shah was at a wedding earlier this month when he got a tap on the shoulder.

It was the sixth time someone sent by the Taliban, the militant group that now rules Afghanistan, had asked the former deputy minister of commerce and industry to return to his old job.

“They’ve sent people to my home, my private office. They’ve sent family members and friends, but I’ve respectfully declined every time,” he told The National in Kabul on the eve of the anniversary of the Taliban takeover.

Mr bin Shah was only 30 when he was appointed deputy minister by then-president Ashraf Ghani, with whom he frequently clashed.

When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last August, he was sidelined. Within a few weeks, he stopped showing up to work. Now, the Taliban want him back.

Afghanistan’s economy has shrunk by 20 per cent to 30 per cent since US troops withdrew. The Taliban have taken the country back to 2007 in an economic time machine, at a cost of about a million jobs, and leaving 70 per cent of the population unable to afford food and other necessities, the World Bank reported.

Afghans in Kabul mostly lay the blame for their dire economic prospects on international sanctions taken against the extremist group.

These take various forms, from the nearly $9 billion of Afghan Central Bank reserves confiscated by the US and European countries, to a ban on banks dealing in dollars to avoid the possibility of carrying out any transactions that might allow money to end up in Taliban hands.

The former prevents Afghanistan’s government departments from importing most food or medicine. The latter deters most foreign governments, charities and businesses from dealing with Afghanistan at all.

Sara, a 14-year-old, an Afghan girl, sits on a grave and reads a book as she sells water at a cemetery in Kabul, Afghanistan. AP

Although the US Treasury Department, which regulates the dollar-related sanctions, has said exceptions are allowed for humanitarian transactions, the details of these exceptions remain so vague that few want to take a chance.

“Afghan institutions are not technically under sanctions at all … Individual Taliban leaders are,” said Mr bin Shah.

“Unfortunately, the Taliban government has decided to put those individuals in charge of various institutions, which prevents foreign groups from dealing with them. This is something we need to blame the Taliban for.”

Decisions made by the Taliban during its stewardship of Afghan institutions have done little to ease the world’s discomfort.

In March, the government’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice patrolled government offices and sent home any male employees who declined to grow a beard or wear traditional Afghan clothing. Last month, female employees at the Ministry of Finance were asked to quit their jobs and send a male relative to work in their place.

These actions have left the country without thousands of skilled workers, such as Mr bin Shah, to run departments. And it has led them to chase down those they forced out in the heady days following their return.

Logistics nightmare hinders Afghan entrepreneurs

Afghan workers pick saffron flowers in the Ghoriyan District of Herat.

Afghan women carry the picked saffron flowers to be delivered for processing.

Afghan workers pick saffron flowers on a farm in the Ghoriyan District of Herat.

Afghan workers carry picked saffron flowers in plastic baskets to be delivered to a farmer.

Female Afghan workers carry picked saffron flowers in baskets to be delivered for cleaning.

An Afghan saffron shop keeper arranges items at his shop in Herat, Afghanistan.

An Afghan resident enjoys a saffron tea in Herat.

The sanctions have left businesses seeking convoluted means of receiving payment from overseas buyers, including turning to Bitcoin. Meanwhile, the logistics sector has been decimated, with airlines refusing to ship goods and international firms such as DHL leaving entirely.

Noor Ahmad and Himayatulhaq Tahiri, both 24, from Kabul, met while studying together at a university in Peshawar, Pakistan, and invested their savings of $1,000 to start a saffron-exporting business in 2021, when the ministry Mr bin Shah worked at was slashing red tape for start-ups.

Sanctions on the Taliban have hit their business hard.

How they ship saffron to their 300 overseas customers changes week by week, depending which lorries are heading over the Afghan border. The crimson spice can travel to Peshawar, Dushanbe or even Tehran before being re-exported in unmarked jars to their intended customers, many of whom are in the West.

The second hurdle is getting paid: without bank transfers available, they’ve turned to Bitcoin.

But the cryptocurrency is extremely volatile, so received payments have to be cashed out quickly to prevent any major losses.

A common method is to use an online exchange to swap the Bitcoin for Tether, a so-called “stablecoin” pegged to the US dollar.

The Tether is then used to purchase UC, the in-game currency for the computer game Players Unknown Battlegrounds (PUBG), which is wildly popular among Afghan youths.

A handful of alternative exchange houses in Kabul deal in UC and buy the in-game tokens for hard cash.

In this new financial world of sanctions and convoluted exchanges, Mr Ahmad and Mr Tahiri have, like many other young Afghans, have become big believers in Bitcoin.

“It’s our future,” Mr Ahmad said.

But Mr bin Shah said there is only so much Bitcoin can do for Afghanistan. Rumours run rampant that the Taliban is exploring a ban on cryptocurrencies — it has already banned PUBG — after a few viral reports in recent months of Afghans losing their life’s savings when the price of Bitcoin plummeted.

“Cryptocurrencies do not have the scale and sustainability needed for Afghanistan’s economy, which really just needs certain foundational things — knowledge, expertise and resources,” Mr bin Shah said.

The flow of corruption briefly stemmed

The Taliban promised greater stability and fewer corrupt officials, but after a strong start, the practice is creeping back in. AP

While sanctions remain a big barrier to investment, so, too, does the spectre of corruption.

“Corruption has been the big monster that has always held up our progress,” said Mr bin Shah. “It became normal for everyone in government to take a cut and it ruined a lot of good deals — prospective investors would often be pressed for bribes, and then just pack up and leave.”

One of the silver linings of the Taliban’s strict rule, many Afghans say, was that corruption briefly diminished. Now, though, they say it is starting to return.

An Afghan businessman, who did not want to be identified, said that under the republic, bureaucrats would charge about 80 per cent in “fees” on the deal. Under the Taliban, that has been reduced to 10 per cent.

“The Taliban don’t know enough about all the procedures in various ministries yet, so these guys collect fees like they used to and tell their Taliban supervisors it is normal,” he said. “But they don’t squeeze so much out of you that you might go and complain to one of the mullahs.”

Mr bin Shah said that the Taliban’s return was an opportunity when it came to fighting corruption — one he thinks they are frittering away.

“We were given a clean slate last year [when the Taliban took over] … The superpowers were gone and for the first time in a long time the country had to deal with its affairs itself,” he said.

“For the first three months of the new government, I would receive regular reports from businesspeople that corruption was zero. But this is no longer the case, and it’s hard to say that no one from the Taliban is collaborating. For a time, you could say their ignorance was the problem, but until when? It has been a year.”

One evening in the first week of August, at a cafe in one of Kabul’s high-end hotels, The National overheard a western aid contractor suggesting to his managers back home that their organisation should consider paying off Taliban officials to get their job done easier.

They even suggested calling an old contact who used to enable similar payments in the republic days.

A pivot to new trade partners

A youth selling prayer beads and jewelllery looks for customers at a market in Kabul. AFP

While the US and others in the West are reluctant to do business with the Taliban, there are others less concerned.

China’s interest in Afghanistan’s much-vaunted but little-explored natural resources sector has excited many in the country.

Earlier this year, the Taliban government shook hands with Chinese businessmen to build the first “Chinatown” — a 10-storey shopping centre that hosts appliance shops and travel agencies.

Noor Rahman Ahmadi, 22, is one of 10 Afghans working there, alongside a few Chinese citizens.

He is fluent in Mandarin after spending four years at a Chinese university and he often works as an interpreter for Chinese businessmen.

Mr Ahmadi dreams of going back to China, but to do so, he would need to pay $1,400 to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days — an amount greater than his entire annual salary at Kabul’s Chinatown.

And this, critics of this new investment say, illustrates the problem experienced so far: many businesspeople have come to see Kabul, stores are being built and the mining sector appraised, but few are willing to invest in developing Afghan talent.

About 600,000 young Afghans enter the workforce every year, and the stagnant economy means few will find jobs.

And yet, in Kabul, cafes and shops are busy and it does not appear, at first glance, to be the capital of the world’s most impoverished nation.

But this, warns one aid worker, is an illusion.

“People are spending from their savings or remittances from family overseas, just so they can go out to eat like they used to,” he said. “Most people are not earning new dollars.”