RASC News Agency: The recent earthquakes that tore through eastern Afghanistan have not only left widespread destruction but also exposed the lethal consequences of the Taliban’s gender apartheid. According to a damning investigation by the Daily Mail, dozens of women who initially survived the Kunar quake died preventable deaths after being denied medical treatment under the Taliban’s repressive edicts. The report, released on Saturday, September 6, details how scores of women trapped under rubble were pulled out alive yet critically wounded. Instead of receiving immediate care, they were abandoned to their fate because the Taliban regime has effectively banned male doctors from treating women and severely restricted the presence of female medical staff. In many rural districts, where female doctors are already scarce, this policy has meant that women bleeding, crushed, and in need of urgent surgery were left to die untreated.
Rescue workers and survivors recounted chilling scenes where Taliban enforcers actively obstructed aid to women. Female rescuers were barred from participating in relief missions, while male medics and volunteers were threatened with “serious consequences” if they touched or assisted women. One survivor told the Daily Mail:
“They pushed us aside and took only the men for treatment. We remained covered in blood, and no one came to help us.”
These testimonies reveal that, in many cases, women did not perish because of collapsed buildings but because of the Taliban’s deliberate denial of lifesaving care. Humanitarian groups now warn that the female death toll in Kunar’s quake-affected districts is significantly higher than official figures suggest, precisely because of these discriminatory restrictions.
The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent has already cautioned that the death toll will rise. More than 2,200 people are confirmed dead, with at least 3,600 injured. Yet behind these statistics lies a darker reality: women are dying at disproportionate rates, victims not only of natural disaster but of state-imposed neglect. Independent journalists and local aid workers have confirmed that Taliban fighters systematically blocked women from taking part in rescue operations. Only a limited number of female UN staff were grudgingly permitted to assist, leaving thousands of injured women without adequate support. One local journalist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said bluntly: “The Taliban made this earthquake deadlier for women than it had to be.”
The United Nations has issued multiple warnings that the devastation could affect hundreds of thousands, plunging Afghanistan into an even deeper humanitarian crisis. UN Women emphasized that Afghanistani women and children were “disproportionately affected, suffering the most acute consequences of both the earthquake and the Taliban’s policies.” The agency underscored the urgent need for large-scale, sustained assistance tailored specifically to women’s needs. Human rights experts argue that the Kunar disaster is part of a broader pattern. Since 2021, the Taliban have systematically dismantled women’s access to healthcare, banned female aid workers, and imposed crippling restrictions on women’s public presence. In times of natural disaster, these measures translate directly into higher female mortality.
Ultimately, the Kunar earthquakes underscore a grim truth: Afghanistani women are fighting not only against natural calamities but also against a regime that treats their survival as expendable. The Taliban’s obsession with control and gender segregation has transformed a natural disaster into a man-made atrocity.
