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Blisters and wounds: Women endure the hard work of weaving wire gabions
Laila Khamoosh* author this for the Zan Times in Persian, translated into English by Rustam Seerat.
Sohaila* hides her hands so no one notices the blisters on her palms and fingers. From a distance, I watch her skillfully weave coarse wires into the shape of gabions, rectangular wire baskets or cages that are filled with rocks and used as retaining walls for agricultural fields, irrigation canals and rivers. Her son helps her separate the tangled wires so that she can weave small loops.
She closes her eyes and sighs as she continues her work, holding pliers, a knife, and wire cutters specially designed for the job. It is hard, painful work. “When I weave wires, my hands burn from the blisters and wounds,” she tells Zan Times. “My feet ache, and my back hurts so much that I can’t sleep all night when I go home.”
Sohaila is a 42-year-old widow whose husband, a former soldier, was killed by unknown armed men seven years ago. She is responsible for their six children, who age from their 16-year-old eldest son to a 7 year old. Sohail’s family pays 1,500 afghani a month to rent a two-room house in Baghlan province.
