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On Afghanistan, most people in West have worryingly short attention span

December 05, 2021
After 20 years of interventions, Western nations have abandoned a country at its most vulnerable moment
Photo by Mohammad Rahmani on Unsplash
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When President Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan after a two-decade long war, criticisms of the decision came flooding in. Warning that the nation was very susceptible to a total seizure by the Taliban, politicians, charity organisations, and activists from all over the world could foresee the impending takeover.

Afghanistan has faced instability since the 1970s with the Communist uprising, the invasion of the USSR, and the US backed resistance to the invasion. Since then, the country, and surrounding region, has relied on international interventions in order to keep the Taliban at a minimal threat to personal and social freedoms. Since the decision to withdraw troops, twenty years of relative peace and growth has come crashing down. Yet, this did not garner more than a month's media attention, and as a result, the world has once again gone hush on the subject.

Clinically speaking, object permanence is a cognitive skill which takes newborns a few months to grasp. Yet, it seems that the general public, me included, are easy to forget humanitarian tragedies happening unless we are consistently reading the headlines. It is as if there is no object permanence when it comes to the struggles Afghan people are facing. Of course, this only emboldens oppressive regimes such as the Taliban to continue their reign of terror.

Reports from Afghanistan tell us of economic hardships in Afghanistan, leading to starvation and other related difficulties. Further, we knew that the return of the Taliban would once again put women and girls in danger of losing individual liberties, such as the freedom to work and education, and indeed, this has proven to be a very valid fear as the majority of education spaces for girls have been shut down, and reports have suggested Afghan women are rarely seen out and about now.

After 20 years of interventions, Western nations have abandoned a country at its most vulnerable moment. As a Muslim woman myself, it breaks my heart to see so many people suffer at the hands of a regime which claims to represent Islamic teachings and belief. IF it truly did, the Afghan people, including women and girls, would be prospering in economic, educational, social, and domestic spheres.

That the women are suffering at the hands of men who claim to represent Islam is abhorrent. Anyone with even a shred of understanding of Islam would understand that justice between men and women is inscribed into the very fabric of the religion. I belong to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community where His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the worldwide head of the community addressed young girls and women stating '"Islamic teachings are crystal clear that women are not inferior to men in any way whatsoever. Thus, where the Holy Quran mentions 'believing men' it also mentions 'believing women'. This is true equality…'. This was not just off-hand comment made with little evidence to show for it. In fact, it was addressed to the audience who had gathered at Western Europe's largest mosque, the Baitul Futuh Mosque, for the sake of religious and secular education.

The case of Afghanistan is not one that can be forgotten, as it has been, over and over again. The implications are far reaching. The country has been in turmoil for nearly four decades now, experiencing moments of growth in between, but ultimately always falling at the hands of hungry predators. And it is always the same people who suffer. His Holiness, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, has also addressed this in his earnest efforts to encourage active steps towards world peace. He stated in 2018 at the Peace Conference held by the community 'Poor nations must not be looked down upon, rather we should consider them as part of our family – our brothers and sisters.'

Indeed, it is time we look at Afghanistan with more than just fleeting attention, whether the mainstream media follows suit or not. International pressure is key to fighting injustices and this can begin with the simple yet pivotal act of remembering.

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Can tech help female entrepreneurs break the bias?

Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.