The Taliban’s gender apartheid regime is causing a mental health crisis that remains largely ignored.
“In Kabul, I always have the feeling of living in an open prison,” said a former schoolteacher who struggles with stress and anxiety due to the strict restrictions the Taliban regime has placed on women. Ta. She spoke to Fair Planet on condition of her anonymity.
Experts say that under the Taliban’s gender apartheid regime, psychological problems such as severe depression, anxiety, stress and loss of self-esteem are rapidly increasing among women who feel increasingly excluded from society. It is said that it is widespread.
Shamima (alias) was an English teacher at a private school until she lost her job when the Taliban banned schools for girls above grade six.
“For the first few weeks I couldn’t believe it and thought it wasn’t going to last much longer,” she told Fair Planet. “But now, more than two years later, with schools reopening and no sign of life returning to some kind of normality, we are facing mental health disorders caused by stress and anxiety.”
Under the Taliban’s version of Sharia law, women face severe restrictions in employment in both the public and private sectors, as well as in their roles within development and aid organizations, leading to significant psychological distress. linked. The impact is especially severe for women like Shamima, who are the sole breadwinners of their families.
“I used to pay for all of my family’s living expenses, but I can’t afford all these expenses anymore,” said the ex, who has endured panic attacks since all women’s colleges closed more than a year ago. said Mariam Alizada, a teacher at Kabul University.
Alizada’s father died of heart disease two years ago, and she now has to care for her mother, who suffered a stroke and lost the ability to speak properly.
Alizada said after her mother suffered a stroke, doctors recommended monthly check-ups and prescription updates to maintain her neurological health. But it’s been four months since she last saw a doctor.
Alizada worries that she will lose her mother soon because she cannot afford the monthly tests and medicines she needs.
She told Fair Planet that her previous efforts to find work had been fruitless, making her stress even worse, and that she was experiencing severe depression as a result. She said: “I often feel incompetent. I have no hope for my future career. We are all very depressed.”
What’s behind the growing mental health crisis?
Despite significant international pressure and strong protests from both local civil society within Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora around the world, the Taliban banned universities for women and girls in December 2022.
The situation is even worse in rural areas, where forced and early marriages are on the rise and suicides are on the rise. According to an Amnesty International report, corroborated by national and international organizations working in Afghanistan, local activists and other experts, rates of child, early and forced marriage in Afghanistan have skyrocketed under Taliban rule. are doing. This surge can be attributed to several important factors. lack of educational and professional opportunities for women and girls; Families forcing women and girls to marry Taliban members. And Taliban members themselves are forcing women and girls into marriage.
According to the UN Women report, almost 70 percent of women surveyed revealed a significant increase in their feelings of anxiety, isolation and depression, which can be attributed to the current situation in Afghanistan.
Sharafuddin Azimi, a Kabul-based psychologist, said social isolation, as well as increased poverty, unemployment and depression, are the main factors behind the rising suicide rate among Afghan women.
“Women have been ignored in so many ways in Afghan society,” Azimi told Fair Planet. “They have mental health issues and we know that when social and family pressures, poverty and unemployment increase, they commit suicide.”
As the mental health crisis among Afghan women becomes increasingly acute, Kabul-based sociologist Zia Nikzad believes there is a lack of adequate counseling centers and the need to address these issues as a serious problem. She emphasized that women’s access to essential services is inadequate.
She added: “There are persistent negative perceptions of individuals, especially women and girls who suffer from mental breakdown or severe depression, which alienate and alienate them from society.” “This view is making the problem worse, not solving it,” he added.
Ms Nikzad said family support for women and girls can have a huge impact by encouraging them in areas where they have abilities and skills. This approach could alleviate some of their challenges, he stressed.
She further said that online opportunities in education and employment could effectively reduce mental burden and improve women’s mental health.
However, it must be noted that Afghanistan has limited access to online opportunities, primarily secondary education, higher education, and basic online commerce. This is primarily due to poor connectivity and limited resources available to women and girls, especially in remote areas of Afghanistan.
lingering anxiety
In the two-and-a-half years since the Taliban took over Kabul, many female professionals have fled Afghanistan fearing persecution.
In interviews with Fair Planet, several Afghan women waiting for their asylum claims to be processed in Pakistan said their fears have not gone away, only changed.
Khalida Alizada, a former Afghan prosecutor who fled to Pakistan, says she and her children have been hiding at home all day, fearing they will be arrested by police and deported to Afghanistan because their visas have expired. Told.
“I have not received a response on the humanitarian visa applications I submitted to the United States, Germany, and France,” she said, adding that Taliban authorities have denied her involvement in a number of high-profile cases against the Taliban while serving in the Taliban regime. He added that he would not show mercy. Republic of Afghanistan.
Nikzad argues that international humanitarian organizations need to pay serious attention to the mental health issues of women and girls in Afghanistan, calling it a “hidden disaster” that affects millions of people. he emphasized.
Image by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona.
