The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged Taliban authorities to lift restrictions on Afghan female aid workers, which would allow them to travel without male guardians and assist women struggling to access care following a powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan that killed 2,200 people.
“A very big issue now is the increasing paucity of female staff in these places,” Dr. Mukta Sharma, the deputy representative of WHO’s Afghanistan office, told Reuters.
She estimated that around 90% of the medical staff in the area were male, with the remaining 10% often being midwives and nurses rather than doctors who could treat severe wounds. This has hampered care as women are uncomfortable or afraid to interact with male staff and travel alone to receive medical attention.
The September 1 magnitude-6 quake and its aftershocks injured more than 3,600 people and left thousands homeless in a country already facing severe aid cuts and a slew of humanitarian crises since the Taliban took over in 2021 as foreign forces departed.
Restrictions on Female Aid Workers and Their Impact
In 2022, the Taliban administration ordered Afghan female NGO staff to stop working outside the home. While humanitarian officials note that there have been exemptions, particularly in the health and education sectors, many say these are insufficient to allow a surge of female staff, especially in an emergency situation requiring travel.
Sharma noted that this has led to uncertainty for aid organizations and female staff, who in some cases are unable to take the risk.
“The restrictions are huge, the mahram (male guardian requirements) issue continues and no formal exemption has been provided by the de facto authorities,” she said, adding that her team had raised the issue with authorities last week.
“That’s why we felt we had to advocate with (authorities) to say, this is the time you really need to have more female health workers present, let us bring them in, and let us search from other places where they’re available.”
Sharma expressed extreme concern about the future of women’s access to mental health care for trauma, as well as for those whose male family members have been killed, leaving them to navigate restrictions on women without a male guardian.
Peer Gul from Somai district in Kunar province, which was hit hard by the quakes, said many women in his village had experienced trauma and high blood pressure after the earthquake and were struggling to reach medical care.
“There is no female doctor for examinations; only one male doctor is available,” he said.
Financial Cuts’ Effect on the Healthcare System
Sharma also pointed out the growing shortage of Afghan female doctors due to the Taliban’s ban on female students in high school and university, which means a new generation of women doctors is not being trained.
The UN estimates that around 11,600 pregnant women were also impacted by the quakes in a country with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Asia.
Funding cuts, including those from the U.S. administration this year, had already left the health system in a fragile state. According to Sharma, around 80 health facilities had already closed in the affected areas this year due to U.S. aid cuts, and another 16 health posts had to be shut down due to damage from the earthquake.
