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

I didn’t know either but it was mentioned in a bbc article to explain why there was only men in the photos.

It is shocking though, not allowed to be seen, not allowed to be heard, not allowed to leave the house unattended, lack of medical care. There’s an awful lot of Afghan refugees in Iran due to a less oppressive regime which I feel says a lot.

I’d imagine they’d go the other way and say the earthquake was a punishment from Allah due to women’s failure of knowing their place.

Of course not. Such a thought would not enter their heads because they know that they know exactly what Allah wants.

I can't even fathom such evil.

And I agree with @Theunamedcat, the UK should grant refugee status to any Afghan woman.

I don’t know why, but this:

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.

really hit me in the gut.

Generally speaking, the higher child mortality, the more children women have.

This is why plans to help improve maternal and child health outcomes often help to stabilise population.

I can't even imagine how the subjugation, oppression of women and the lack of healthcare is going to impact on the population going forward, and I'm sorry, but most farmers treat their livestock with more care as they want them to be productive. The Taliban are actively and deliberately harming women.

It’s true that higher child mortality tends to mean higher births. other things have an impact, too maternal education, access to contraception, maternal age. All things that have gotten worse under taliban

As has come up on other threads, it does not appear that any organisation especially any based in the west, are working in Afghanistan.

On one of the many other threads, it would seem that the only women working directly with women in Afghanistan are those who managed to escape, and are making clandestine contact virtually.

As said before it might be more helpful to agree to set up one thread about women in Afghanistan and keep it updated.

As well as providing links to articles with basic facts, or those we are allowed to know, about the actual situation.

If anyone has time might be worth making a list of previous threads.

If you look at this list it doesn't look like any of these groups listed as working with women in Afghanistan are actually there.

https://www.obama.org/stories/support-women-and-girls-in-afghanistan/

It hit me in the gut writing it. I do think women are seen as low worth, disposable, interchangeable. I think in the next 10-20 years you’ll be looking at a new wave of mothers who’ve grown up under this regime and it will be entrenched. I don’t know if I’ll ever understand the evilness of men

But, they get to watch cricket, so not all bad

Sorry, I'm just sick to my stomach of the way the treatment of women and girls gets ignored 😟

Women’s Hour were discussing this yesterday, it was a shocking and distressing listen. Those poor women and girls.

That's what really whacked me across the face like a dead fish: the men in the villages refusing treatment for their dying female relatives. Un-effing-believable.

They'd rather watch their mothers and daughters die than let them be helped.

Every single woman and girl should be given the means to escape those monsters, and then the trolls can tear each other to pieces to their heart's content. What utterly appalling men.

This is grim reading. I presume the Telegraph fact checked before publishing. (A hard read)

Afghan women die in rubble as male rescuers refuse to touch them
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/09/05/afghan-women-die-rubble-male-rescuers-refuse-touch-them/

Article in full is also at https://archive.is/Ynv2w

'Afghan cultural norms, strictly enforced by the Taliban even in emergencies, barred the male rescuers from pulling out female survivors.
The strict rules also ban women from being employed as rescue workers themselves.'
...Hamid Badshah, a resident of Kunar Province, said injured women were left under the collapsed houses because the members of the all-male medical team were hesitant to pull them out.'

Looks like international rescue teams are sending in female rescuers to try and help save women.

Isn't this a quote from the link I posted? Confused!

On the BBC World Service a woman reporter said that for the first time ever, the Taliban wouldn't let her, as a woman, visit any of the women who had been lucky enough to reach the hospital she was reporting from.

And yes there was mention of women being included in rescue teams but that it was harder for women to get there. Not explained. Wasn't sure because it is physically hard to reach places or because they couldn't be in a helicopter with men.

But sadly given how many days it is, one can only imagine how many women have not been helped let alone taken to hospital.

WHO asks Taliban to lift female aid worker restrictions following earthquakes
WHO requests Taliban to make formal exemption to restrictions on Afghan female aid workers
Thousands of women left injured, homeless by earthquakes
Restrictions, male guardian requirements hampering humanitarian response for women, WHO says
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/who-asks-taliban-lift-female-aid-worker-restrictions-following-earthquakes-2025-09-08

UN closes aid centres because of Taliban restriction on female staff.

And in light of the restrictions, on Tuesday, UNHCR temporarily closed its cash and support centres for vulnerable Afghans, both at the border and in areas where so many people have been returning from Iran, Pakistan and elsewhere since the start of the year.

The registration process involves providing biometric data, along with screening and interviews – work that would be “entirely impossible without Afghan female workers”, the UNHCR official stressed, noting that more than one in two returnees are women.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/09/1165832

I wonder if this will push them to change their stupid fucking rules.

I suspect that as it will only be women who suffer, they wont.

If they're closing aid centres, this will impact on men, too.

I think the article was about specific treatments for women.

New thread https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5410736-bbc-is-reporting-on-women-dying-in-childbirth-in-afghanistan