Kabul Family Faces Poverty Ahead of Eid al-Fitr

KABUL (Afghan Verified) -- With three days remaining until Eid al-Fitr, a poor family in Kabul's Koh Chahardokhtaran area is struggling to meet basic needs.

Ziraafshan, a 50-year-old woman and sole breadwinner for her seven-member family, said her husband Musa has been paralyzed in his hands and legs, with impaired hearing, since an explosion six years ago near the Sayed al-Shuhada school. Musa rushed to the school after an initial attack but was wounded in a second blast, she recounted. Despite treatment, he remains unable to walk or use his hands.

The family sold their house to cover Musa's medical costs and now lives in a rented home, Ziraafshan said. She supports their four daughters and one son by washing clothes, carding wool and cracking almonds in people's homes. They received short-term aid of 2,900 afghanis monthly for a few months through a local representative, but it was discontinued, with no sustainable support since, she added.

Ahead of Eid, Ziraafshan said she has not bought new clothes, fruits or sweets for her children in the past six years. Most of their clothing comes from donations of old and new items. "If my husband gets better, our life will be fixed again," she said.

Musa, speaking in a weak voice with tears, described their rented home and pleaded for help. "We deserve help, we have nothing," he said. "In this Ramadan one help came -- a servant of God brought a sack of flour, that was good too."

Muftee Shamasa al-Rahman Furtoon, a religious scholar, urged assistance for the poor, especially during Ramadan. "Helping and assisting the poor, needy, and destitute is virtuous at any time, especially in the blessed month of Ramadan," he said, citing a prophetic tradition that giving iftar to a fasting person earns the same reward as fasting, without diminishing the faster's reward.