Women: The Forgotten Victims of the Earthquake in Eastern Afghanistan

Kokcha News Agency – The devastating earthquake in eastern Afghanistan has disproportionately affected women and girls, highlighting their vulnerability in times of crisis. The United Nations has issued a stark warning that failing to prioritize women’s needs in the response and recovery efforts will lead to dire outcomes.

In a statement, the UN Women’s section emphasized, “Women must be prioritized in the response and reconstruction process, from immediate access to healthcare and safe shelter to protection from violence and discrimination.” Susan Ferguson, the UN Women’s Special Representative in Afghanistan, stressed, “Women and girls will bear the brunt of this disaster. It is essential to ensure their needs are at the forefront of relief and rebuilding efforts.”

The 2023 earthquake in Herat revealed that six out of every ten fatalities were women, and two-thirds of the injured were also women a grim statistic that experts fear is now repeating in eastern Afghanistan. Reports indicate that by Tuesday, at least six pregnant women had died in hospitals in eastern Afghanistan due to the lack of female medical staff. Despite the scale of the crisis, information about female victims remains scarce, as cultural pressures and Taliban restrictions have turned women into “silent victims” of such disasters.

Simultaneously, Amnesty International has warned that the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s employment have severely hampered relief efforts in Afghanistan, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. The UN Women’s section has once again called for urgent action, cautioning, “If women are overlooked, the humanitarian crisis caused by the earthquake will unjustly and heavily fall on their shoulders.”

Author: 𝑼𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒖𝒔 𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒎