"I want to help the country I love" - activist Hassina Syed on plans to help Afghanistan's economy

Hassina Syed with a gift from Afghanistan's Minister of Mines and Petroleum Maulvi Shahabuddin Delawar - which translates to 'In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate'.

Hassina Syed, a political activist, was one of thousands of British nationals forced to flee Afghanistan in August 2021 when the Taliban seized power of the country.

Since then, she and her husband Peter Jouvenal, who was one of five British men imprisoned in Afghanistan for six months, have taken part in The Nobel Peace Prize Forum 2022, which focused on how to find a way forward for Afghanistan.

Businesswoman Hassina has now just returned from Afghanistan, where she was working for more than four months with Government officials and ministers on how they can make the country a better place for the people who work there.

Hassina with the Deputy Minister of Economy, Abdul Latif Mazari on her visit to Afghanistan.

Hassina explained that she wanted to go and see her home country for herself as there were many reports that women were not allowed to work or go shopping and so on, but said that she was pleasantly surprised to see female employees working in the airport when she landed, who were also wearing make up.

“The government ministers were really welcoming and they said they were really appreciative of me as a female businesswoman, and they admired my courage in meeting with them,” she said.

“They saw my business background and my aim to develop Afghanistan through the business sector, and they were appreciative of that.”

Hassina said that her priority is developing business in Afghanistan in order to not only stabilise the economy, but also to provide income and a home for the one million Afghan refugees who have arrived back in the country from Pakistan.

Hassina Syed pictured with Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Deputy Minister of Economy Abdul Latif Nazari.

"What will they be coming home to?” she said, “If there’s no jobs for them to come back to Afghanistan to, what will they do and where will they go? They will go to other countries and we don’t want other countries to have to take on more immigrants, we need to provide that help for them inside their own country.”

Hassina said that the way to help these people is to work with the Taliban government and build a relationship to stabilise the country’s banking system and create jobs for the people who live there.

"Criticism is not going to feed these people or give them security,” she said, “We need to create that help inside Afghanistan. Right now, those businesses in the country are ongoing and there’s this uncertainty for them.”

She also said that the way to help people, and women in particular, was not to use social media to criticise the Taliban but to support the growth of business and tourism in the country:

"The important thing is that we have to create strategy to work with the Taliban, not against them, as there’s been more than 40 years of conflict and they and the people want peace.”

Hassina said she will continue to work on strategies for new businesses in the country, and plans to return to Afghanistan at a later date.

"This is my country and I really want to help the people in the country I love,” she added.