Background:
Sources in Balkh province say that the “Khadijah Al-Kubra” market, specifically for women in Mazar-e-Sharif city, has been closed due to the non-payment of shop rents by the market authorities. According to sources, the market was temporarily closed on Saturday, April 20th, due to the non-payment of shop rents and water.
 

The monthly rent for each shop is 2,700 Afghanis, which has not been paid for the past two months.

The source further adds that the market authorities have given a 10-day deadline for women shopkeepers to pay their rents, otherwise their contracts will be terminated.
 

The Khadijah Al-Kubra and Rabia Balkhi markets in Mazar city cater specifically to women, with approximately 200 shops currently active in the Khadijah Al-Kubra market.

There are a lot of clothes, boots, and cosmetics markets around Nasser Khesraw Balkhi Road. At the end of this road, there is a six-story market, next to the Mazar Public Hospital. Balkh municipality officials changed this market name from “Noor Market” to “Khadija Al-Kubra Market” and rented all its shops (which were closed for years due to lack of customers) to businesswomen. They invited all the female shopkeepers, who worked separately to gather in this market and form a special market for women.

In Khadija Al-Kubra Market, around 900 educated and non-educated women are engaged in the production and sale of industries such as clothes, cosmetics, sweets, etc. A number of women who are working in the women’s market of Mazar-e-Sharif say that they don’t choose this job for passion, but they have to do it because the gates of educational institutions are closed to women.
 

The six-story Khadija Al-Kubra market has less traffic than other markets because it is exclusively for women.
Sudaba, a shopkeeper in this market, says that although this market is newly established, quality goods are sold in it.