A devastating magnitude 6.0 earthquake in eastern Afghanistan on August 31 killed more than 2,200 people and injured some 3,600, according to the Taliban authorities.
Nearly half a million were affected by the earthquake in the worst-hit Kunar and Nangarhar provinces, with relief and rescue efforts continuing even after three weeks of the tragedy.
However, as the local government and aid agencies attempt to provide support to victims in a country largely dependent on international humanitarian support, women remain visibly absent from these efforts.
In 2022, the Taliban government banned women from working in NGOs operating in the country. A year later, it also forbade Afghan women from working with the United Nations and other international NGOs.
While several NGOs were able to negotiate terms allowing some of their female staff to continue working if accompanied by their “mahrams” (male guardians), there are significantly fewer women working as aid workers in Afghanistan today than was the case before the Taliban returned to power, observers say.
The Taliban ban, some of them say, has made it harder for aid agencies operating in Afghanistan to reach women who need support during a disaster, like the recent earthquake. According to the UN, more than half of those killed or injured in the earthquake were women and girls.
Several women in the earthquake-affected areas, however, said male rescue workers did help them, and the Taliban insists it is doing all it can to ensure that all victims receive assistance — irrespective of their gender.
Women overlooked? Mixed stories
On September 7, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged the Taliban authorities to lift their restrictions on female aid workers in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the disaster.
“A very big issue now is the increasing paucity of female staff in these places,” said Mukta Sharma, a representative of the WHO in capital Kabul, at the time. She said nearly 90 percent of the earthquake-affected region’s medical staff were men, and the remaining 10 percent were women who mainly worked as midwives and nurses, and therefore were not trained to tackle severe injuries.
A few female volunteer healthcare workers, who were able to reach the sites affected by the earthquake, corroborated the challenges faced in rescuing women.
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