In a shocking display of systemic gender-based discrimination and brutal neglect, the Taliban regime has been accused of deliberately abandoning Afghan women to die under the rubble of collapsed buildings following a series of catastrophic earthquakes.
The powerful quakes, which struck the western province of Herat, reduced entire villages to dust and debris, claiming over 2,400 lives and leaving thousands more injured and homeless. Yet, instead of mobilising a full-scale humanitarian response, the de facto authorities have actively hindered rescue efforts, particularly where women are trapped.
A Regime of Deliberate Negligence
Disturbing eyewitness accounts and reports from local sources detail how all-male Taliban rescue teams have prioritised saving men and boys, often refusing to even touch or look for women and girls buried in the ruins. This has left countless women to suffer agonising deaths, their cries for help ignored due to the regime's rigid and extreme interpretation of gender segregation laws.
"They would hear the voices of women calling from under the rubble, but they would not help them. They said it was forbidden for them to touch a woman," one devastated local resident reported.
International Aid Blocked and Diverted
The crisis has been further exacerbated by the Taliban's obstruction of international aid organisations. crucial supplies, including food, water, and medical kits, are being seized and diverted to favour Taliban loyalists, while the most vulnerable populations—particularly women and children—are left to fend for themselves.
This has created a devastating dual catastrophe: first the natural disaster, and second a man-made humanitarian crisis orchestrated by the regime in power. The few functional hospitals in the region are overwhelmed, lacking basic supplies and the capacity to treat the influx of injured survivors.
A Grim Pattern of Gender Apartheid
This catastrophic response is not an isolated incident but a direct result of the Taliban's enforced policy of gender apartheid. Since retaking control of Afghanistan, the regime has systematically erased women from public life, banning them from education, employment, and most public spaces.
The decision to effectively sentence women to death under earthquake debris is a horrifying new low, demonstrating that the regime's ideology supersedes even the most basic tenets of human compassion and Islamic principles they claim to uphold.
As the winter approaches, the situation for survivors grows increasingly desperate. Without immediate and unimpeded international intervention, the death toll from this negligence is feared to rise exponentially, marking one of the most severe humanitarian failures of the modern era.
