Afghan women and girls are bearing some of the heaviest burdens of a deadly 6.0 magnitude earthquake in the country’s eastern provinces last week.
Already faced with cultural and legal barriers due to Taliban’s harsh restrictions, reports show the natural disaster has intensified the situation for Afghan women, who are impeded from accessing hospital care and other support.
As victims were pulled from the rubble in Afghanistan’s eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, reports have been made that many women were left trapped by male rescuers due to a prohibition on physical contact between unrelated men and women.
Current reports from the United Nations show that nearly 40,000 people have been impacted by the earthquake, while over 5,000 homes have been destroyed.
The Taliban has confirmed a death toll of over 2,200 people, although this number is continuing to rise as more victims are recovered by rescue teams.
Women in the country are banned by the Taliban from being treated by male doctors, but ther are almost no female doctors in the region, as women have also been banned from pursuing medical education.
An estimate from the UN reproductive health agency (UNFPA) shows that 11,600 pregnant women have been affected by the earthquake’s destruction, with Afghanistan already having some of the highest maternal mortality rates.
To help women struggling to access care, the World Health Organization has asked Taliban authorities to lift restrictions on Afghan female aid workers and to allow them to travel without male guardians.
UN Women Afghanistan has called for prioritising women’s needs in the response to the earthquake, emphasising the importance of female humanitarians to ensure lifesaving assistance reaches affected women and girls.
“In Afghanistan, in recent years, women and girls have been pushed to the very margins of society and survival,” said Shannon O’Hara, the Head of Strategy for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“We know from previous earthquakes and other crises that women and girls always bear the heaviest burden.”
In October 2023, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in the country saw women and children make up over 90 per cent of the casualties.
Since February 2025, 422 health centres across Afghanistan are reported to have closed, leaving earthquake survivors even more vulnerable. Weather conditions and the remoteness of the region have left survivors in Afghanistan waiting for the arrival of aid, amid delays from humanitarian organisations.
After the Taliban’s takeover of the country in 2021, a number of international aid agencies pulled out of Afghanistan or reduced their operations. US president Donald Trump’s funding cuts to foreign aid are also having an impact on support for this latest earthquake.