Sofia Pilagallo, from R7 November 13th, 2023 2:00 a.m
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Since August 15, 2021, Afghanistan has become an unbearable nightmare for women. On that day, the Taliban overthrew the country’s then president, Asharf Ghani, took control of the capital Kabul and returned to power after more than 20 years. Today the country is facing a mental health crisis among women, who are most affected by the fundamentalist group. Many see no other way out than to end their lives.
Taliban authorities do not release data on suicides and have banned health workers in several provinces from sharing updated statistics. Despite the obstruction, these professionals revealed information about the period between August 2021 and August 2022 to highlight an urgent public health crisis.
The figures were shared with reporters at Zan Times, a womenrun investigative newspaper that reports on human rights abuses in Afghanistan. According to the vehicle’s website, the team is made up of journalists who work at home and abroad and write reports in English.
The statistics are incomplete but provide a meaningful overview of mental health in Afghanistan. Data suggests the country has become one of the few countries in the world where more women than men die by suicide.
According to the World Health Organization, the number of men who take their own lives worldwide is more than twice as high as that of women. In Afghanistan, more men than women committed suicide until 2019, the most recent year for which official data is available, but this changed after the return of the Taliban.
Of the 11 provinces surveyed by health experts, men accounted for the majority of deaths and suicide attempts in only one of them. That province is Nimruz, a region where people, mostly men, risk dangerous attempts to enter neighboring Iran illegally. Those who don’t cross the border sometimes take their own lives.
With the return of the Taliban, more than three quarters of registered suicide deaths, including suicide attempts, are now women. Most of the victims were young women, still in their early teens. The numbers are likely an underestimate because suicide is considered shameful in Muslim countries and is often covered up. Some women who attempt suicide are not taken for treatment, and some who die are buried with no record of taking their own lives.
“The situation is terrible,” said Anjhula Singh Bais, president of Amnesty International’s board and also a psychologist specializing in trauma. “Many psychologists doing field research around the world, including myself, have said that the situation is now chronic. The trauma, oppression and violations are immense. Suicide is a sign that people feel there is no hope. “Afghanistan was a collective consciousness of hopelessness.”
Psychiatrist Sharafuddin Azimi, an associate professor at Kabul University, says the number of his patients especially women increased significantly after the return of the Taliban. In 2019, it served around 1,300 people per year. Now it is estimated that this number varies between 2,300 and 2,400. On average, Azimi says, he looks after between 50 and one hundred people every week.
The restrictions imposed by the fundamentalist group are the office’s main complaint. The most commonly reported symptoms by patients are depression, anxiety and panic syndrome. Some people claim to have developed certain types of addictions to deal with their problems.
“Women come to me and say, ‘We are depressed and hopeless. We have no future. What should we do?’” says Azimi. “Every week I talk to patients who say they want to take their own life. This is desperate.”
Since the Taliban returned to power, girls and women have had their rights and freedoms restricted. They can only study until the end of primary school, which in Afghanistan goes up to the 6th grade. Women do not have access to higher education and cannot build a career.
Since access to university was limited to men, they were also excluded from the labor market. According to research by the International Labor Organization (ILO), women’s employment fell by 25% in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the second quarter of 2021, the period before the return of the Taliban. Women are also not allowed to work in NGOs or hold public or legal offices.
Equally shocking restrictions include the fact that women are not allowed to visit various places such as parks, gardens, gyms, sports fields and public toilets. To go out on the streets they must be properly covered with the burqa. The garment conceals the entire body, even the face, and features a narrow peak at eye level to allow visibility.
In July this year, the Taliban also ordered the closure of all beauty salons, which were the only spaces of freedom and socialization for women. According to the Afghan Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the ban affected around 60,000 women who worked in 12,000 beauty salons and whose only source of income was the establishments.
Anjhula Singh Bais explains that the Taliban does not allow human rights organizations to enter Afghanistan. Nevertheless, it is possible to check the situation remotely because “research methods use a variety of tactics.”
“Amnesty continues to call on the United Nations to address the Taliban’s relentless abuses. In a world of multiple crises, there seems to be a lack of interest in the plight of Afghan women. We must continue to speak out and take action,” says Anjhula.
UN Women was asked to comment on the mental health crisis in Afghanistan as part of the report but declined to comment.
Hosa Niazi, 23, who did not want her image revealed to protect her identity, lives in Kabul and is one of several Afghan women whose mental health has been affected by the Taliban regime’s restrictions. She says she feels depressed, hopeless and has even thought about ending her life at times.
Before the fundamentalist group returned to power, the young woman had a very active everyday life she studied, worked and had a bright future ahead of her. Now she spends her days at home with no prospects.
“I would wake up very early in the morning and then go for a walk in the park sometimes alone, sometimes with my mother and sister,” says Hosa. “When I was tired, I slept late, showered and got ready for university, where I stayed until 5 p.m. I was in the third semester of my business studies and was one of the best in my year.”
The world was in the midst of the Covid19 pandemic when the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021. In the first and second semesters of this year, young people were unable to go to school or university because of the spread of the disease.
Classes resumed in early 2022, but with some restrictions imposed by radicals, such as the mandatory use of the hijab. Hosa says that was the first time she wore the Islamic veil. Although she never felt the desire to wear the garment, she did not hesitate to do so.
At the end of 2022, Hosa reported that he had heard rumors that the Taliban would ban women from attending university, but did not believe them. Days later, on December 22, the fundamentalist group blocked its access to higher education across the country “until a further decision.” Today they continue without studying and there is no prospect of that changing.
In addition to studying business administration, Hosa was part of the UN group “Women in Afghanistan” and worked at an NGO for orphans. She also dreamed of opening her own online store and had saved money to make the project a reality. However, after the Taliban returned, all plans failed.
“I wanted to open my online store and was just waiting for winter to start. But when he [o Talibã] When I arrived I was so depressed that all I could do was cry. I just cried. “I had nothing,” says Hosa.
“Now I’m trying to start something new, but every time I think about it, there’s a voice in my head that tells me, ‘It won’t work.’ Everything is over here. We have nothing left. What we do is just eat and sleep,” he adds.
Hosa believes that the only possible future for her and other Afghan women lies outside Afghanistan. She has already considered applying for a humanitarian visa to a country that will host her, but believes she will not be able to do so at this point.
The young woman has several relatives and friends who have left Afghanistan and are living in neighboring countries such as Pakistan, Iran and India particularly Pakistan, the closest territory and the easiest alternative. But the cost of living in these countries is higher than in Afghanistan, and she has no one who can help her family survive in another country.
“We don’t have enough money. How can we leave? Our friends and family tell us that everything is more expensive outside Afghanistan, especially for refugees. People don’t treat us well. That’s why I see no other alternative than to stay here.”, says Hosa.
“People always ask me why I speak so well, and then I remember that my grandfather was a professor and had a master’s degree in psychology from a university in the United States. Sometimes I wish he had never left. “Maybe we would have done it today in a future,” he adds.
Hosa doesn’t go to therapy or take medication to ease the sadness and discouragement that comes with being a young woman in Afghanistan. To feel better, she says, she sometimes goes shopping for flowers and eats fruit from her garden. Still, he says he isn’t opposed to traditional treatments for depression and other psychiatric disorders like the majority of the population.
In Afghanistan, as in other Muslim countries, mental health is taboo. Problems such as depression and anxiety are considered causes of shame and disgrace. Afghans believe they need to pray and use “religious methods” to solve their psychiatric problems, according to psychiatrist Sharafuddin Azimi. Parents are often unable to help their children.
“They say, ‘Why are you crying? You are a Muslim, Muslims don’t have depression, they don’t commit suicide. You have to be strong’. That makes everything much more difficult for them,” says Azimi.
In addition to stigma, misinformation is another problem. There is a lack of knowledge among the population about the existence of psychiatric illnesses and their treatment. Many people don’t even know what depression, anxiety, panic syndrome and many other problems that affect millions of people around the world are.
Azimi attributes this to the lack of campaigns on the issue in the Afghan media and the lack of government initiatives to address the mental health crisis that is now part of public health. After the Taliban returned, the inadequate actions simply disappeared.
“I ask my patients: ‘Do you know your problem? Have you heard of counseling?’ They say, ‘No. What is depression? What is fear? I know I have a problem, but I don’t know. What.’ is it,’” says the psychiatrist.
Life in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime can mean the end of the road for many women. But there is hope outside of that too. A year ago, young Hela* moved to Brazil with her mother and siblings, where they were granted humanitarian visas. Today they live in a refugee shelter in the São Lucas district in the east of São Paulo.
Hela and her family left Afghanistan in October 2021, two months after the Taliban returned to power. Her path to Brazil was neither linear nor easy. First they went to Pakistan.
They then returned to Afghanistan for a short time and from there went to Iran, where they stayed for five months. In October 2022, the family received permission to live in Brazil on a humanitarian visa and today they can call the country home. According to the State Department, Brazil issued 12,399 humanitarian visas to Afghans from September 2021 to August 2023.
“I have many friends and relatives who live in Afghanistan uncle, aunt, grandfather, grandmother. I miss her very much,” says Hela. “It’s not easy to leave everything behind, but it was necessary. There is no future for us in my country.”
Although she is young, Hela already knows how important education is in building a successful future. Proof of this is that she learned Portuguese in just one year and can communicate in the language even with a limited vocabulary.
The shelter where Hela lives offers a Portuguese course and she dedicates herself to the lessons to improve her language skills. She also loves reading, which makes learning the Latin alphabet easier. The Persian alphabet is used in Afghanistan, which makes learning a new language even more difficult.
“Portuguese is a bit difficult for us because it is male and female. We don’t have it in Persian. Furthermore, the cultures of Afghanistan and Brazil are very different. Clothing, language, everything is very different. But I like it.” “I like Coxinha and the friendliness of the Brazilians. We thank the Brazilians because they are very good people. We feel very comfortable here,” says Hela.
In the not too distant future, Hela, who is in her first year of high school, would like to study in Brazil. She wants to take the entrance exam for the medical course, the most demanding in the country.
The teenager says he is aware of the obstacles but is committed to improving his Portuguese to achieve the best possible performance. The next two years will be characterized by a lot of commitment and dedication, but also by many victories and sighs of relief.
“I feel free since I arrived in Brazil. I can make my decisions and live the way I want. “I’m excited about all my opportunities and can’t wait to see what the future has in store for me,” celebrates Hela.
* The report used a fictitious name to protect the young woman’s identity.