Kabul. The Taliban government in Afghanistan has banned the use of contraceptive pills for women. Clinics are closing across the country. Women are not able to get treatment for pregnancy or miscarriage. A private clinic in Badghis province warned that all medicines had been destroyed. A doctor who has been running a clinic in Jawzjan province for 30 years says that contraceptive pills are running out rapidly after the Taliban came to power. Here 30 out of 70 women needed it. In many places including Kandahar province, there is strictness against taking treatment directly from male doctors.
According to media reports, a 36-year-old woman said that she is no longer able to recognize her children. Sitting at her mother’s house in a village in Kandahar, she shakes quietly. She has been pregnant nine times and had miscarriage six times. She is mentally and physically broken under the pressure of her husband and in-laws. Her mother says she has been torn apart by fear and constant pregnancy. A 42 year old woman from Kandahar is the mother of 12 children. She says that now she finds it difficult to even get up. There is pain in the bones. The husband flatly refuses to take any contraceptive.
The 29-year-old woman started living in a tent after the earthquake. Couldn’t go to toilet for three consecutive days. He suffered from intestinal problems. Doctors warned that if she became pregnant now, she could die. But after a year she became pregnant again. Gave birth to a child. Her life was saved, but now she is suffering from bleeding. More than 440 hospitals and clinics closed last year due to reduced international funding, according to the United Nations and World Health Organization. In rural areas, women walk for several hours to reach the clinic. Women give birth alone at home. 80 percent of pregnant and lactating women are malnourished. They have anemia, vitamin deficiency and low blood pressure.
According to the report, girls above 12 years of age are not allowed to study in secondary and higher education. Girls’ schools have been closed in many provinces. Women cannot work in many government and private sectors. The jobs of women like doctors, nurses, teachers were affected. Women cannot go out of the house without a male guardian. Women are required to wear hijab or burqa. Women’s participation in music, sports and entertainment is restricted.
