RASC News Agency: Local sources in southeastern Afghanistan’s Khost province have reported yet another tragic suicide, marking the fourth such death in less than a week and highlighting a rapidly worsening mental health crisis in the region. On Monday evening, a young man from the village of Khadar Piran took his own life by hanging. This grim incident follows closely on the heels of two other suicides within 48 hours: Bialal, a 17-year-old from Ali Sher district, died by self-inflicted gunshot, while two teenagers a 15-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy ended their lives amid dire poverty and economic desperation, according to local reports.
The latest victim, a graduate from Sheikh Zayed University in Khost, had earned a bachelor’s degree last year. Though the precise reasons for his suicide remain unclear, family members describe overwhelming unemployment, economic hardship, and a profound sense of hopelessness as factors that pushed him to despair. His funeral is scheduled for Tuesday, August 21, in his native Khadar Piran village. Concerned residents across Khost attribute the surge in youth suicides to chronic poverty, widespread unemployment, and escalating mental health pressure exacerbated by the Taliban’s harsh socio-political environment.
Rather than addressing these underlying issues, the Taliban authorities have responded with a stringent clampdown on media coverage of suicides. Local officials have prohibited regional news outlets from reporting on these incidents and issued warnings against sharing related information on social media platforms, including details of suspicious deaths. This censorship appears designed to obscure the human cost of Taliban misgovernance and suppress public discourse around the worsening crisis. International organizations, notably the World Health Organization, have documented a sharp rise in mental health disorders throughout Afghanistan since the Taliban’s takeover. The WHO attributes this spike to the regime’s oppressive social restrictions especially targeting women and girls and the collapse of economic stability and civil liberties.
With no accessible mental health infrastructure, no meaningful employment opportunities, and no social safety nets, experts warn the suicide epidemic will likely deepen, reflecting the tragic toll of Afghanistan’s spiraling economic despair, political repression, and enforced silence.
