The departure of Western forces from Afghanistan marked a drastic shift for Afghan women, once granted freedoms during the Taliban's absence. Now, under Taliban rule, a "suicide pandemic" disproportionately affecting women has emerged. Taliban-imposed gender restrictions have triggered a mental health crisis, and the rollback of women's rights and their erasure from public life has led to profound despair and mental health deterioration. Such institutionalized oppression prompts some women to view suicide as the only option to escape their desperate situation, signalling a worrisome impact of the Taliban’s regime on women’s survival.
BY Laia Corxet Solé
When western forces left Afghanistan over two years ago, they left behind a population of over 19 million women who have had to face one of the most patriarchal and restrictive regimes in the world. [1] After having enjoyed the exercise of their rights and freedoms during the 20 years the Taliban’s absence, these women have now been reduced to second-class citizens and deprived of any basic human right under the new government. The country now faces what some have called a “suicide pandemic” as Afghan girls and women seek to flee the agony of living under strict gender oppression through death. [2]
Suicide is, globally, an issue that statistically affects men twice as much as women. [3] In Afghanistan, however, the truism doesn’t hold. According to recent unofficial figures, an alarming number of women and girls are committing or attempting suicide, and they make up more than three-quarters of deaths and survivors of suicide. [4] While the Afghan government does not provide official data on the issue, data collected from public hospitals and clinics by a team of reporters suggests the country is facing a mental health crisis which can be attributed to the multiple restrictions on women’s lives by the Taliban regime. [5]
In July 2022, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations heard reports of the increasing suicide rates among Afghan women following the Taliban consolidation in government. [6] Considering the fact that the Afghan population was, already prior to the Taliban takeover, considerably affected by psychological distress as a result of decades of continued conflict, [7] the spike in suicides among its female population highlights a concerning trend for the Afghani population. Since summer 2022, however, little has been done to counter the wave of self-inflicted deaths among Afghan women.
These numbers are only estimations. Suicide is a highly taboo topic in Afghan society as it is considered anti-Islamic. Subsequently, families often conceal deaths by suicide or refuse to seek medical treatment to help their loved ones. Moreover, the Taliban regime has no incentive to collect and report on such data, as it tries to consolidate its power internally and its legitimacy internationally. Consequently, real numbers may be even worse than those we can have access to.
Women’s oppression has been widely linked to negative mental health effects for those who suffer it. [8] The psychological field has widely studied the many ways in which gender discrimination has health implications, and the World Health Organization identified already in 1998 that “women’s health is inextricably linked to their status in society”. [9] Women’ rights, therefore, become a crucial cornerstone in the protection of human lives.
The violence many women are subjected to in patriarchal societies imposes different pressures on individuals that negatively impact their mental health. For example, domestic violence, a prevalent issue in Afghanistan, [10] has been linked to negative effects for both physical and mental health, as well as an increased risk of attempting suicide. [11] By establishing a culture of impunity for violence against women, the Taliban regime has worsened and already dire situation for Afghan women. Moreover, the regime has created obstacles that prevent women from seeking help or escaping dangerous situations. [12] By outlawing women from public life – by denying them the right to education, fee movement, or employment, to name a few – Taliban policies have turned women into prisoners in their own homes.
The Taliban policies are directly responsible for the deaths of Afghan women not only by driving them to such stages of desperation where some my decide to take their own lives, but also by depriving them of the medical resources that can save their lives. Under Taliban law, women cannot be attended by male doctors.[13] However, women have been removed en masse from the workforce, which has also reduced the amount of female healthcare professionals. Consequently, women who may want to seek help or might need medical assistance from attempts on their own life, may not be able to access the doctor they need.
According to a UN survey, 68% of Afghan women consider their physical safety as “bad” or “very bad”, highlighting the distress most women live under in present day Afghanistan. [14] Moreover, the same report assesses that 90% of women define their mental health as “bad” or “very bad”. [15] The rollback in rights and freedoms as a result of Taliban policies, therefore, has obvious negative impacts on the wellbeing of women in the country. This, however, is not new. Already in 2001, a Physician for Human Rights report showed how women living in Taliban-controlled areas experienced declining mental and physical health as a result of Taliban policies. [16]
Nevertheless, the plight of the Afghan women is exacerbated by the sharp rollback of rights. Before the Taliban takeover of August 2021, women and girls in Afghanistan attended school and university, worked and could enjoy a full social life. Suddenly, they have had all of their basic human rights stripped away, plunging them into desperation. Not only is their mental-health affected by a lack of rights, but also by the relative deprivation they are experiencing compared to prior years, during which women’s rights had been slowly but surely improving. [17] The loss of hope associated with the loss of rights and a lack of spaces for change or political participation has increased the mental strain for women, who have no avenue left to exercise their autonomy. Afghan women have been made invisible, which is a threat to their human dignity and their life.
Consequently, the Taliban regime’s policies on women are having dire consequences. The safety and security of Afghan women will continue to be at stake as long their government keeps them isolated, oppressed, and abused. Despite initial statements by the Taliban authorities when they first came into power that they would honour human rights in the country, women have been completely erased from public life as their oppression becomes systematic and institutionalized. [18] According to Richard Bennett, the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Afghanistan, such institutionalized oppression of women “create[s] a culture of impunity for domestic violence, child marriage and sale and trafficking of girls, to name but a few of the consequences”. [19]
In a context where all freedom has been taken away, women may chose to exercise their autonomy in the only avenue that remains possible to them. Suicide becomes a decision of rebellion taken from a state of despair for girls and women who have no other way to challenge their oppression. The Taliban policies become a direct threat to women’s survival, and the international community must ask itself how can they help the women they left behind.
References
[1] CIA. n.d. “Afghanistan – The World Factbook.” https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/afghanistan/.
[2] Limaye, Yogita. 2023. “Afghan Women in mental Health Crisis over Bleak Future.” BBC News, June 5, 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-65765399.
[3] WHO, 2021. “One in 100 deaths is by suicide” [online] June 17, 2021. https://www.who.int/news/item/17-06-2021-one-in-100-deaths-is-by-suicide.
[4] Nader, Zahra, and Times, Zan. 2023 “’Despair is settling in’: female suicides on rise in Taliban’s Afghanistan” The Guardian, August 29, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/28/despair-is-settling-in-female-suicides-on-rise-in-talibans-afghanistan.
[5] Ibid.
[6] “In Afghanistan, women take their lives out of desperation, Human Rights Council hears” UN News, July 1, 2022. https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1121852.
[7] Kovess–Masféty, Viviane, Katherine M. Keyes, Elie G. Karam, Ajmal Sabawoon, and Bashir Ahmad Sarwari. 2021. “A National Survey on Depressive and Anxiety Disorders in Afghanistan: A Highly Traumatized Population.” BMC Psychiatry, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-021-03273-4.
[8] Gupta, Mayank, Madabushi, Jayakrishna S., and Gupta, Nihit. 2023. “Critical Overview of Patriarchy, Its Interferences With Psychological Development, and Risks for Mental Health.” Cureus, June. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.40216.
[9] Douki, S., Ben Zineb, S., Nacef, F., and Halbreich, U. 2007. “Women’s Mental Health in the Muslim World: Cultural, Religious, and Social Issues.” Journal of Affective Disorders 102, no. 1–3: 177–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2006.09.027.
[10] UN Women, n.d. “Afghanistan”[online] https://evaw-global-database.unwomen.org/en/countries/asia/afghanistan.
[11] Kavak, Funda, Aktürk, Ümmühan, Özdemir, Aysel, and Gültekin, Abdurrezzak, 2018. “The relationship between domestic violence against women and suicide risk.” Archive of Psychiatric Nursing, 32: 574-579.
[12] Geneva Solutions. n.d. “No Safety under Taliban for Afghan Women Fleeing Domestic Violence - Geneva Solutions.” https://genevasolutions.news/explorations/dispatches-from-women-in-afghanistan/no-safety-under-taliban-for-afghan-women-fleeing-domestic-violence.
[13] Green, Mark A., 2023. “Women and Suicide in Afghanistan.” Wilson Center. September 19, 2023. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/women-and-suicide-afghanistan.
[14] UN Women, IOM, UNAMA, 2023. “Situation of Afghan Women – Summary report of country-wide women’s consultations”. https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2023/06/situation-of-afghan-women.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Douki, S., Ben Zineb, S., Nacef, F., and Halbreich, U. 2007. “Women’s Mental Health in the Muslim World: Cultural, Religious, and Social Issues.” Journal of Affective Disorders 102, no. 1–3: 177–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2006.09.027.
[17] UN Women, 2023. “Women in Afghanistan: From Almost Everywhere to Amost Nowhere. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/feature-story/2023/08/women-in-afghanistan-from-almost-everywhere-to-almost-nowhere.
[18] “In Afghanistan, women take their lives out of desperation, Human Rights Council hears” UN News, July 1, 2022. https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1121852.
[19] Ibid.
