- Fatima Ibrahimi, returnee from Iran
- Banin Hussaini, returnee from Iran
- Jamil Rahimi, owner of TAK dry fruit factory
- Mursal Sadat, returnee from Iran
- Barham Salih, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees



SHOTLIST :
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, BALKH PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN
JULY 6, 2026
SOURCE: AFPTV

IMAGES (02:05)
1. 00:05-00:10 Close-up woman processing dried apricot in a dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
2. 00:10-00:15 Mid shot women processing dried apricot in a dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
3. 00:15-00:20 Mid shot women processing dried apricot in a dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
4. 00:20-00:25 Wide shot women processing dried apricot in a dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
5. 00:25-00:30 Wide shot women working at a dried fruit factory, where around 30-40 percent of its workers are Afghan returnees
6. 00:30-00:35 Wide shot women working at a dried fruit factory, where around 30-40 percent of its workers are Afghan returnees
7. 00:35-00:40 Mid shot Fatima Ibrahimi [SB 1-2] processing raisins in dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
8. 00:40-00:45 Close-up Fatima Ibrahimi [SB 1-2] processing raisins in dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
9. 00:45-00:50 Mid shot Fatima Ibrahimi [SB 1-2] and Banin Hussaini [SB3] processing raisins in dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
10. 00:50-00:55 Mid shot Fatima Ibrahimi [SB 1-2] and Banin Hussaini [SB3] processing raisins in dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
11. 00:55-01:00 Wide shot girls and women processing raisins in dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
12. 01:00-01:05 Mid shot girls and women processing raisins in dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
13. 01:05-01:10 Close-up young girl processing raisins in dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
14. 01:10-01:15 Close-up girls and women processing raisins in dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
15. 01:15-01:20 Mid shot girls and women processing raisins in dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
16. 01:20-01:25 Wide shot girls and women processing raisins in dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
17. 01:25-01:30 Mid shot girls and women processing raisins in dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
18. 01:30-01:35 Close-up young girl processing raisins in dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
19. 01:35-01:40 Mid shot girl packaging raisins in dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
20. 01:40-01:45 Mid shot processed dried fruits prepared for the welcoming program for UN chiefs 
21. 01:45-01:50 Close-up processed dried apricot prepared for the welcoming program for UN chiefs 
22. 01:50-01:55 Close-up packaging of dried raisin destined for export after processing
23. 01:55-02:00 Wide shot dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees
24. 02:00-02:05 Wide shot dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees 

25. 02:05-02:10 Wide shot dried fruit factory where around 30-40 percent of workers are Afghan returnees 


NAHR-E-SHAHI, AFGHANISTAN
JULY 6, 2026
SOURCE: AFPTV

IMAGES (00:45)
26. 02:10-02:15 Mid shot girls weaving carpets in a center where Afghan women returnees are employed
27. 02:15-02:20 Close-up young girl weaving carpets in a center where Afghan women returnees are employed
28. 02:20-02:25 Close-up young girl weaving carpets in a center where Afghan women returnees are employed
29. 02:25-02:30 Wide shot girls weaving carpets in a center where Afghan women returnees are employed
30. 02:30-02:35 Mid shot girls weaving carpets in a center where Afghan women returnees are employed
31. 02:35-02:40 Close-up klim sewn by girls who returned from Iran at the carpet-weaving center
32. 02:40-02:45 Wide shot klim sewn by girls who returned from Iran at the carpet-weaving center
33. 02:45-02:50 Wide shot UNDP chief Alexander De Croo (L) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih (R), visiting to a Carpet weaving center where Afghan returnees are working
34. 02:50-02:55 Wide shot UNDP chief Alexander De Croo (L) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih (R), visiting to a Carpet weaving center where Afghan returnees are working

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, BALKH PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN
JULY 6, 2026
SOURCE: AFPTV

35. 02:56-03:03 SOUNDBITE 1 - Fatima Ibrahimi, returnee from Iran (female, 21 years old, Dari, 7 sec): 
"As women are not allowed to get an education, it is an opportunity that we get to work here, and we are satisfied with our work."

36. 03:04-03:12 SOUNDBITE 2 - Fatima Ibrahimi, returnee from Iran (female, 21 years old, Dari, 8 sec): 
"It has been a year since I have been working here [factory], we are working 8 hours and the UNDP introduced and helped us with this."

37. 03:13-03:32 SOUNDBITE 3 - Banin Hussaini, returnee from Iran (female, 18 years old, Dari, 19 sec): 
"When we first came from Iran, we did not have money and enough food, but now because of working here, we can have food now, and it has improved."

38. 03:33-03:48 SOUNDBITE 4 - Jamil Rahimi, owner of TAK dry fruit factory (male, 54 years old, Dari, 15 sec): 
"There are more than 300 women and around 80 to 90 men who are working in this factory. Although it may be different sometimes, around 30 to 40 percent of the workers are returnees."

NAHR-E-SHAHI, AFGHANISTAN
JULY 6, 2026
SOURCE: AFPTV

39. 03:49-03:58 SOUNDBITE 5 - Mursal Sadat, returnee from Iran (female, 20 years old, Dari, 10 sec): 
"Compared to living in Iran, our situation has worsened because I could work there [others as well], but I'm working here alone for just $25 it is like nothing."

40. 03:59-04:23 SOUNDBITE 6 - Barham Salih, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (male, English, 24 sec): 
"We have had more than 6 million people returning to Afghanistan, some of them not necessarily in the best circumstances and under some adverse conditions. This year we are expecting possibly a total of 2 million more people coming in, and this is quite a burden on the system, on the capacity of the country."
----------------------------
TEXT STORY

Women pushed back to Afghanistan pin hopes on rare private sector jobs

Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan - JULY 7, 2026 11:30:19 GMT - AFP

Alongside millions of Afghans, 21-year-old Fatima Ibrahimi was forced to return from Iran to a home country in the grips of a humanitarian crisis.
Unlike many, though, she has found a rare glimmer of hope in a stable job at a dried fruit factory in northern Balkh province.
"There are six of us in my family, and I am the only one working," Ibrahimi told AFP as she sorted raisins in the large factory hall in sweltering summer heat.
She lived in Iran for four years, working in greenhouses and as a seamstress, before returning home after Tehran tightened its policies for Afghan migrants.
That, combined with a government repatriation drive in neighbouring Pakistan, has resulted in what the United Nations calls one of the largest population repatriation movements globally.
More than six million Afghans have been pushed back to a country where jobs are few.
The risk of economic destitution is particularly acute for women, with a series of restrictions by Taliban authorities on their movement, work and education leaving many without an income.
However, at the dried fruit factory in the historic city of Mazar-i-Sharif, UN backing has helped ensure around 40 percent of the 400 employees are returnees -- many of them women.
"As girls are not allowed to get an education, it is an opportunity we got to work here, and we are satisfied with our work," Ibrahimi said.
Taliban authorities have closed high schools and universities to women and girls over the age of around 12.
Aid budgets have been slashed since the Taliban government took power, and were exacerbated by Trump administration cuts last year. Another two million Afghans are expected to be pushed back this year, so the need for work opportunities is only growing.
"It's important that we are there to help with settlement and with integration and survival and, beyond survival, for livelihood and sustainable solutions," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih told AFP during a visit to UN-backed private sector projects in Mazar-i-Sharif on Monday.
The head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Alexander De Croo, accompanied him and told AFP that both agencies partnering with businesses could be a launching pad for finding longer term solutions.
"The approach we have here is really... going immediately into the logic of a longer-term perspective and going outside of the immediate short-term."


- Challenges remain -


A few kilometres (miles) away in the district of Nahr-e-Shahi, returnee women sat at a large loom where they wove a carpet with bright multicoloured thread, taking part in one of Afghanistan's oldest and most famous artisanal sectors at another project backed by the UN refugee agency and UNDP.
The centre offered an economic lifeline for around 40 women employed there, but challenges remain for those pushed back from neighbouring countries where many had migrated seeking more lucrative opportunities.
"Compared to living in Iran, our situation has worsened because I could work there, but working here for just $25 (per month) is like nothing," said 20-year-old Mursal Sadat.
Saliha Ahmadzai, the head of the centre, acknowledged the uphill battle.
"Currently, we have many problems, specifically, the restrictions (on women) itself is a challenge," she said. "Poverty is getting more intense day by day in Afghanistan's society."
Still, the centre offered hope in a country where the majority of people live below the poverty line and where UNDP figures suggest a formal employment rate of only 3 percent among returnees.
Aydin Sadat, who returned from Iran months ago, first lost her "morale and was crying a lot, saying that we had to go back to Iran because we could not live here", she told AFP during a short break from weaving a green and red carpet.
"I have found friends; our trainers help us," 18-year-old Sadat said. "Now that I have come here, my morale has improved."
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