For the last few weeks, all eyes have been on Afghanistan, especially the plight of Afghani women. As the Taliban rule in Kabul and surrounding areas goes into effect, many women have begun staying home, quitting jobs, and donning burqas (head-to-toe coverings) in fear of the organization. As the pandemic continues and conservative Taliban rule takes over the country, one of the many women’s issues that may now be under attack is women’s health.
COVID-19, other wartime injuries and disease, poor reproductive health services, and lack of access to female doctors are all issues that have now been escalated as the Taliban take over Afghanistan. To put it very simply, access to quality healthcare for women is now going to become a serious issue in Afghanistan
COVID-19 takes Afghanistan
As of right now, the COVID-19 vaccination rate in Afghanistan is at a low rate of 1.9%. The majority of the population is still vulnerable to COVID-19 and Afghanistan has already faced 3 waves of COVID-19. The low vaccination rate makes the Afghani population extremely vulnerable to new COVID-19 strains like the Delta variant that could spread rapidly through the unvaccinated population, including women.
Of those who are vaccinated, only 40% are women, and if access to healthcare continues to decrease, especially in the case of COVID-19, over the next few weeks the percentage of vaccinated people that are women could continue to drop. As of August 25th, vaccination rates already dropped 80% in Afghanistan and testing rates an additional 77%. If Taliban healthcare officials do not take an active stance in getting people vaccinated and curbing the spread of COVID-19, cases could rise rapidly over the next few weeks.
Refugee Health
As many people evacuate their homes in fear of the Taliban, healthcare centers have been scrambling to provide appropriate aid for refugees. Of refugees fleeing Kabul, 75% are women and children. As women fear a severe rollback in the rights they have worked to gain over the past twenty years, they are beginning to flee internationally and out of cities to distance themselves from the Taliban rule.
Refugee healthcare centers in Afghanistan are now treating up to 500 people per day or more with various diseases included pneumonia and diarrhea, as well as injuries from the fighting that has occurred in the country over the past few months. Once the fighting paused and the Taliban assumed full unopposed control over Afghanistan, many have begun seeking out treatment for their health issues in increased quantities.
This has completely overloaded the healthcare system that is already dependent solely on foreign aid. Emergency supplies including food and medicine are already in short supply in the country and over 70% of existing emergency medical supplies were released in the matter of one week during the Taliban’s takeover. If medical supplies, including hygiene kits, vitamin and nutritional supplies for kids, and emergency medicine tools, do run out in the near future and foreign aid doesn’t pick up, the plight of Afghani women refugees will only escalate.
Reproductive Health
Access to reproductive healthcare is one of the defining aspects of women’s rights around the world. In Afghanistan, the maternal mortality rate during pregnancy is extremely high at 637 deaths per 100,000 live births in comparison to 20.7 in the United States. Obstacles to reproductive health currently include a lack of access to transportation and developed roads to reach big hospitals with the technological equipment for complicated births such as Cesaerians.
On top of this, less than 60% of births end up being overseen by healthcare professionals, with midwives and female family members taking on the responsibility in many families. Without professional aid, pregnancies can go wrong easily.
With the Taliban’s new dominance in Afghanistan, these problems only escalate. Though news of the closing of women’s health clinics is still not completely confirmed as journalists flee the country, women in Kandahar have been reporting that their local clinics have been shut down by the Taliban. In the past, the Taliban also used to require male “guardians” to accompany women anytime they left the house. If such a rule takes into effect again, which some cities are already reporting true, women with medical emergencies will not be able to seek help if their male family members are not home. These include reproductive health emergencies and even visits to women’s health clinics that may be limited if male family members are unable to accompany them.
Lack of Female Healthcare Professionals
Another obstacle to women’s health in Afghanistan is the lack of female doctors. Though numbers have grown extremely over the past twenty years as women pursued education and employment, now many women have quit their jobs. Some women have indicated that the Taliban have forced them to quit their jobs, and even though the Taliban have encouraged female healthcare workers to continue working in some big cities like Kabul, many female healthcare workers have quit their jobs anyways out of fear of violence or punishment.
The Taliban are extremely prone to switching up their stances on women’s rights and their current “progressive” agenda may just be a temporary stance for media favor. It is also very likely that they are now only allowing women to work in Kabul and other cities with high media attention while restricting women everywhere else. During the former Taliban regime, few women healthcare workers were allowed to keep their jobs but had to practice in segregated workplaces. This practice may also return in the coming months.
Over the last few years, the importance of having women in healthcare has been emphasized enough for many Afghani families to support their daughters’ pursuit of medical degrees. Especially in a conservative society like that of Afghanistan, the need for female doctors to treat female patients and assist in reproductive healthcare services is extremely important. If female healthcare workers continue to leave their jobs, there may be a serious toll on reproductive health centers and women’s healthcare as a whole in Afghanistan.
The situation for women in Afghanistan is unquestionably dire but figuring out the best ways to support women goes beyond supporting evacuations. It also means taking the time to ensure that women in the country still have access to basic resources such as healthcare and female healthcare workers in Afghanistan are protected. It means supporting women in their time of need, right now in Afghanistan.
This is such an informative post! Thank you so much for sharing and bringing my attention to this crucial topic - I really hope things will start to get better in the future.
I can't imagine health care will get better under the Taliban, especially vaccination for covid19