Online shopping services shut down in Afghanistan due to economic crunch

Almost all major online shopping services in Afghanistan have shut down, with the two major online shopping services recently announcing to shut down their services due to the financial crisis in the country.

Almost a year since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the gap in legitimate governance power in the country took it into a total crisis. The sudden collapse of the Afghanistan administration has resulted in an economic crisis and financial issues in the country.

According to Khaama Press, a well-known online shopping app, Click.af, with a six-year-old successful marketing experience announced its closure on Saturday evening.

A message published on Click.af's Facebook page said they are no longer able to continue operations due to financial issues.

"The precarious economic situation, the capital flight, and the stalling of the economic cycle led sales in the market to be severely affected, and Click.af is no exception," the application's operator/s stated in a Facebook note.

The owner of the Click online store, Masih Stanekzai, said that he is not yet ready to express his feelings.

"I'm not interested in giving a negative feeling about it," he said.

"I hope the future is better in coming years so that businesses like Click.af could start again and flourish and become a success!", Stanekzai added.

A day later, Baqal, another online shopping service with a 3-year-old background announced its closure due to financial hardships.

A message published on Baqal's Facebook page said that it was a medium-sized investment which eventually collapsed as the citizens' purchasing power turned down and the local banks froze people's funds in the bank accounts due to the limitations applied by the Taliban on the banking sector, Khaama Press reported.

Online shopping services in Afghanistan had facilitated and improved communications between customers and shopkeepers but this come as some other major online businesses including an online Taxi service called 'Bubar', Finest superstores online shopping portal and Hindukosh online shopping website were closed months after the collapse of the Afghanistan republic administration.

Right after the Taliban took over in August 2021, the first two months were particularly difficult for many Afghan civilians.

As Afghanistan continues to witness a debilitating rights situation, the UN body for humanitarian affairs expressed concerns over the grave condition pointing out that 25 million people in the country are living in poverty, media reports said.

The human rights situation in the country has been exacerbated by a nationwide economic, financial and humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale, however, the Taliban has repeatedly denied the reports of the violations of human rights, and called them baseless.

As per a report by a global analytics firm, under the Taliban regime, Afghanistan ranked first among the list of unhappiest countries in terms of physical pain, mental stress, mental disorders triggered by poverty and unemployment, anxiety, and anger.

Since Taliban took over authority in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of US forces, Afghans' emotional state reflected the instability and uncertainty as per the survey report.

The Taliban dismantled the system to respond to gender-based violence, created new barriers to women accessing health care, blocked women's aid workers from doing their jobs, and attacked women's rights protesters.

With the US troops' withdrawal from the country, large-scale violence has been unleashed creating political uncertainty in different parts of the country. At least 59 per cent of the population is now in need of humanitarian assistance - an increase of 6 million people compared with the beginning of 2021, according to UNAMA.