Afghan women left without medical treatment after the September earthquake.

Photo by Angelo_Giordano on Pixabay.com

On September 1st, a magnitude 6 earthquake hit the eastern part of Afghanistan. The aftermath was catastrophic: 2,200 killed, 3,600 injured, and thousands of people were left homeless. The current Taliban government faced its first major natural disaster earlier in 2022, when another earthquake killed 1,000 people in the same region as this year. 

The aid agencies working in the territory were already confronting funding cuts, worsened by the one carried out by the US administration earlier this year. Overall, the health system is collapsing, with over 80 health facilities closed because of the cuts and 16 more shuttered by the earthquake. 

The situation is particularly concerning for women and girls in need of medical care. Indeed, the Taliban rule, which regained control of the country in August 2021, has been systematically violating women's and girls’ rights in every possible way. The right to education, freedom of speech and movement, working rights, and access to healthcare are all denied to Afghan women. 

To be more specific, the Taliban authorities “banned women in some provinces from being treated by male medical professionals”, while forbidding women from attending institutions offering health care education. As a matter of fact, it is generating a gap within the healthcare system, as women won't be able to receive medical treatment in Afghanistan when the current generation of healthcare workers retires. Moreover, the already fragile sector is now facing further personnel shortages, with half of the staff being banned from practicing their profession. 

Dr. Mukta Sharma, the deputy representative of the WHO's Afghanistan office, estimated that around 90% of the medical staff in the areas struck by the earthquake were male. Moreover, the remaining 10% of female workers were often midwives or nurses, not doctors. For these reasons, women and girls affected by the earthquake in September were not able to receive proper medical treatment. Among them, “the U.N. estimates around 11,600 pregnant women were also impacted”.

In addition to this, Afghan female aid workers, who were already facing the Taliban’s impositions, such as the obligation to travel with a male guardian, were also banned from doing their job. 

This is why the World Health Organization (WHO) asked the current authorities to lift these bans to assist those affected by the earthquake.

Since these events, the situation deteriorated due to a new earthquake which struck at the beginning of November, leaving at least seven people dead and 150 injured.  

written by Alice Scotti