TW: This article contains content relating to domestic violence, war, and starvation.
Given all that has happened in the realm of international relations recently, it is important that we not forget the devastation that is occurring in Afghanistan. The Taliban takeover in 2021 has created a humanitarian disaster that the international community has not effectively responded to. It is a complex issue which raises questions about how aid could serve as a legitimiser for the Taliban and sees some argue that it is foreign aid that caused this crisis in the first place. This article serves not to argue either side of these debates but rather to share some of the alarming facts, illustrating how dire the situation in Afghanistan still is.
One of the most alarming effects of the Taliban’s takeover is the amount of people who have been left hungry. It has been estimated that 95 percent of Afghan people do not have enough food to eat. Even before the fall of Kabul in August, Afghanistan was experiencing one of the worst droughts the country has ever seen. Due to climate change, yields during the productive months had been much smaller than anticipated, which significantly inflated the price of basic food items like wheat. Furthermore, once the Taliban took power, Afghan assets held overseas were frozen, foreign aid was cut and many jobs like those in the public sector were cut. This has plunged millions of Afghans into poverty, meaning that tens of millions of people are unable to afford food. Consequently, over half of the 40 million people who live in Afghanistan are not eating enough food and an estimated 3.2 million Afghan children under 5 are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2022.
As well as malnourishment, there are other health threats facing Afghans. Since the Taliban’s takeover, bomb and gun injuries have increased significantly. Moreover, COVID-19 and other diseases like polio are now becoming more prevalent in Afghanistan as hygiene has decreased across the country. Compounding these increased risks is the fact that the Afghan healthcare system is collapsing. As many healthcare facilities like hospitals and local clinics were reliant on international aid to function, when the Taliban took over and aid was cut, many healthcare centres were shut down. The World Health Organisation (WHO) predicts that only 17% of Afghan’s health care providers are fully functioning with many health care workers not being paid in over six months. This has been detrimental to the health of Afghans as health providers are not able to care for everyone and now have to “make hard decisions on who to save and who to let die”.
One of the most catastrophic aspects of this crisis is the effect that the Taliban’s takeover has had on women. In Afghanistan, women have been able to seek education and employment for two decades but lost all those rights in a matter of days. Furthermore, with the restrictions placed on women by the Taliban, there has been a decrease in health workers, as female practitioners no longer feel safe to go to work. This is affecting not only the whole health system, but particularly women who are now more hesitant to seek care due to there being no female practitioners. Furthermore, domestic and sexual violence against women has also increased as the Taliban’s court and law systems ignore women by refusing to hear their legitimate claims. One report claims that almost 90 percent of all Afghan women have experienced gender-based violence. In everyday life, the portrayal of women’s faces are being banned. Women’s images from posters and advertisements are blacked out across the country and heads of female clothes mannequins have been severed off. And with all female politicians fired and the elimination of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, it is clear that the Taliban plans on continuing the poor conditions and harsh descriminataion that Afghan women are now forced to live in.
It cannot be understated that the conditions in which the Afghan people are now forced to live are dire and devastating. Their suffering cannot be forgotten, and assistance to rebuild the lives of Afghan people should be provided.
