Earthquake in Afghanistan.

[ArabellaScott]

This is heartbreaking, and I don't know if there's anything at all to be done, but I'm posting to bear witness.

'Earthquake Aftermath in Kunar: Women and Children Left to Die Under Taliban Rule :

The recent catastrophic earthquake in Afghanistan has exposed not only the fragility of infrastructure but also the deadly consequences of Taliban policies in Kunar province. In a region already devastated by natural disaster, the absence of women’s doctors has magnified human suffering—turning tragedy into horror.

For women injured in the earthquake, there was no safe medical refuge. Cultural restrictions, reinforced by Taliban rule, prevent them from receiving treatment from male doctors. With women barred from education and employment in the health sector, the shortage of female medical professionals has proven fatal.

Female victims bled, suffered, and died simply because there was no woman qualified to treat them. The cruelty does not end with the mothers. Pregnant women in Kunar, already deprived of prenatal care, have been left in impossible situations. Reports indicate that children who could have been saved through basic medical intervention were instead lost before birth, their tiny bodies buried in cemeteries—silent casualties of both the earthquake and Taliban policy.

In a very real sense, unborn children are being buried alive in their mothers’ wombs, victims of a system that has erased women from all roles in society. These are not accidents of nature. They are crimes of governance. The Taliban have deliberately dismantled women’s participation in healthcare, education, and public life, creating conditions where preventable deaths become inevitable.

In Kunar, the disaster is twofold: the earthquake shattered homes, but Taliban policies shattered hope. The world must see this for what it is: not only a humanitarian emergency but an unforgivable crime against women and children.

By eliminating women from the entire fabric of society, the Taliban have weaponized gender as a tool of oppression. Every lost life in Kunar is a testament to the deadly consequences of their regime. Silence is complicity. Afghanistan’s women and children cannot afford more silence.'

https://x.com/WDIAfghanistan/status/1963275044320075930

See also

https://www.dw.com/en/afghanistan-quake-why-are-women-struggling-to-get-help/a-73867403

and

https://righttolearn.ca/earthquakes-women-living-under-gender-apartheid-afghanistan/

Thanks. Countries offering to help could make it conditional on women being offered more freedom.

'Volunteer female doctors who were near remote villages in the mountainous region and wanted to help in the immediate aftermath of the quake were prevented from doing so by the Taliban. Men from the villages also rejected their help.'

'Local sources in Kunar and Nangarhar reported that the medical centers in the provinces are facing a severe shortage of female doctors, which significantly complicates the treatment of injured women.
"We have information about the deaths of several injured pregnant women who died due to the lack of female doctors," Zahra Haghparast, a dentist, told DW.

"Do you know how many female doctors and nurses in Afghanistan are currently ready to set out immediately to help these injured women?" Haghparast asked. "But the Taliban won't grant them permission."'

Evil men.

Strangely a couple of days ago I saw a woman being interviewed on a new programme talking about how they were helping women.

But I didn't write it down, so no cant remember the name of the agency or which news programme.

I just felt even if it was only a tiny part of the whole response would want to support it.

Does anyone see something like this?

I was only thinking that the women were most liikely to be trapped in their houses, banned from leaving them, but this is much much worse.
How to ensure that your people don't survive - kill all the women.
Taliban means student doesn't it? Student of nothing. Thick. And sick.
And the USA bears some responsibility - does our government as well?

I haven’t seen a single woman in any of the photos of this earthquake.

Gosh this is so devastating. Thanks for sharing

I am thinking of the movie ‘Women Talking’. Picturing the men distracted somehow and the women all walking out with the boys under 16. The entire country emptying of women and children and the men left standing there. It seems it’s what men think they want.

Not dissimilar to extreme TRA and the pornographers and pimps of the ‘West’, the Taliban are enacting some type of primal male fantasy of total control, and erasure of women. My heart breaks for them but any $ sent seems to inevitably fall into the hands of Taliban and anyone on the ground who tries to help ends up in a dungeon. What on earth can be done to help?

I usually send automatically to any earthquake disaster (Earth Science degree) but I am seriously holding back this time. To choose not to allow help to women cannot be what Allah intends.

Thank you for sharing this. So often these stories never make it into the headlines, and people forget the human cost. Every woman, every child lost deserves to be remembered as more than a number

I've been wondering whether to donate from the earthquake, and to be honest I've held off, because I'm not sure whether the money will go through the Taliban and whether any would help the women there. (Yes, the men suffering from the earthquake would need help too but they are not my primary concern).

Is this the article you're quoting Arabella? I couldn't find your quotes in the one you linked to, but they're in here.

I think it must have been the UN representative for Women in Afghanistan, but having seen their official statement it implies they cant actually do anything other than ask that women aren't forgotten, ignored. ie they aren't there in the country doing anything.

I remember an article from when the taliban initially banned women from accessing medical care without a male guardian. A pregnant woman died because she was turned away whilst haemorrhaging, her husband was working in Iran and there was no-one else to help her so she went to hospital by herself, she died in the taxi on the way back home I believe.

Whats worse about that article is that the men from the village turned down the help. We are talking about their mothers, wives, sisters, daughters. They would rather see them dead than treated. It’s fucking horrible.

Sorry, it was this one:

https://www.dw.com/en/afghanistan-quake-why-are-women-struggling-to-get-help/a-73867403

Should have made that clearer.

This is so heart breaking @ArabellaScott thank you for sharing.

I can imagine there being so many more female casualties because of them being banned from leaving the house.

At least the men who were out on the streets would have had a chance of getting out of the way of collapsing buildings etc, the women would not have had the same chance.

I don't know if my assumption is actually correct, but it's a horrible thought.

Those poor, poor women

If it is what Allah intends then Allah is not good.

Well, quite. But often consulting the source documents shows that the so-called interpreters interpretation is far from what was originally written. Mohammed's wives were respected and taught, and I'll bet nothing in the Quran says let women be left to die in earthquakes.
I think there's a story about a women who regularly screamed invective at Mohammed, and one day he noticed she was not doing so as he went past her house, so he went in and found her unwell, so he looked after her and saw she was treated. *
Maybe the Taliban haven't been taught that, or think it's a satanic verse.
*Source something that came up during RE at school, when I was teaching. BBC on Islam maybe.

Does anyone know anything about Women for Women International ?

If this wasn't actually happening then I would never believe it could be true.

It is the ultimate in evil - insist that women can only be treated by female doctors, refuse to allow any women to train as doctors and lock up all the remaining female doctors in your country, refuse to allow volunteer foreign female doctors in to treat women injured in a natural disaster.

What is the long term plan here? Allow all the women to die through treatable illnesses and suddenly realise that men can't actually perpetuate society on their own?

It’s illegal to photograph women in Afghanistan.

I’d like to know about that too, or indeed any charity that we can trust to actually get the help where it’s needed.

Put simply what is it you want the government's to do? We went in previously we did a deal where they agreed to not subjugate women and as we were leaving they were letting the taliban back in we cannot force our ideals on an unwilling country it simply does not work all we can do is accept refugees FEMALE refugees and children

The men...no thank you

The birth rate in Afghanistan is incredibly high though over 4 births per woman. Obviously so is maternal death rate and child mortality rates but even so the population is growing.

I think women are seen as disposable, marry them off young, churn out children, then if they die or just get older you can buy a new young child bride. Women don’t need medical care any more than your average beast of burden. They are either fit enough to do their job ( procreation and cooking mainly) or they can die.

Sadly, not only does that explain everything it does not surprise me.

I wonder if they ever thought that the earthquake is a sign from Allah that they are committing unspeakable acts of evil against women?