The devastating earthquakes that struck eastern Afghanistan last week have left hundreds dead and thousands injured. Still, survivors and aid workers state that the tragedy has been compounded by Taliban-enforced gender restrictions that left many women without timely rescue or minimal medical attention.
The Taliban is an Islamic jihad group that was formed in the early 1990s in Afghanistan and is rooted in Deobandi Islam and Pashtun tribal codes. After years of insurgency, the group regained power in August 2021, toppling the Afghan government within weeks. Since assuming power, the Taliban has imposed Sharia law, drastically curtailing women’s rights and freedoms. Women are barred from secondary and higher education, prohibited from most forms of employment, and restricted from traveling without a male guardian. They must wear full-body coverings such as the burqa, are segregated in public spaces, and are denied access to parks, gyms, and many health facilities. The lives of Afghan women have been reduced to near-total exclusion from public life, with even small liberties such as attending school or walking freely in the market being criminalized. The Taliban justifies these measures as adherence to Islamic doctrine; in practice, it has institutionalized the treatment of women as second-class citizens, erasing decades of progress in Afghanistan.
Also, under Taliban rule, men who are not relatives are barred from physically touching women. In the chaos following the earthquake, this restriction meant that male rescuers ignored helping injured women, even those who were trapped under rubble. Witnesses reported that in some cases, dead bodies of women were dragged out by their clothes to avoid breaking the “no-skin-contact” rule.
Nineteen-year-old survivor Bibi Aysha recalled how rescuers bypassed her and other injured women after reaching her village. “They gathered us in one corner and forgot about us,” she said, still recovering from her wounds and mental trauma. Volunteer responder Tahzeebullah Muhazeb echoed her concerns: “It felt like women were invisible. Men and children were treated first, while women waited for care.”
The lack of female medical professionals and rescue workers, a direct result of Taliban bans on women’s education and employment, further compounded the crisis. In quake-hit areas such as Mazar Dara, not a single woman was present in rescue teams or medical camps, even days after the disaster. As a result, women and girls had little to no access to emergency care, shelter, or food supplies.
Humanitarian agencies have warned of the dire consequences of this exclusion. Susan Ferguson, UN Women’s representative for Afghanistan, stressed: “Women and girls will again bear the brunt of this disaster, so we must ensure their needs are at the heart of the response and recovery.”
The Taliban, meanwhile, has deployed defense forces, airlifted supplies, and coordinated emergency camps, but has made no move to address the gender gap in disaster response. Rights activists say this is not simply collateral damage, but the outcome of a deliberate policy that sidelines women in every sphere of Afghan life.
With the death toll already above 2000 and over 4000 injured, it’s evident that unless the international community finds ways to bring female aid workers into the field, half of Afghanistan’s population will remain at critical risk in future disasters.
Now, for years, liberals and self-styled feminists across the globe have relentlessly pushed the narrative that “Islam is the safest religion for women,” and that Muslims are constant victims of oppression. Yet every time Islamic regimes reveal their true face, these voices suddenly go silent. The recent tragedy in Afghanistan, where Taliban-enforced rules stopped men from rescuing injured women after the deadly earthquake, once again exposes this hypocrisy.
This is not an isolated incident. Across Sharia-ruled societies, from Afghanistan to Iran, women are systematically denied education, medical aid, freedom of movement, and even the right to dignity. Instead of raising their voice against such barbarism, global liberals and feminists conveniently look away, focusing instead on portraying Muslims as victims in non-Islamic countries.
The Afghan earthquake rescue operation demonstrates yet again that under Islamic rule, women are not seen as equals, but as subhumans. The silence of those who claim to champion women’s rights is not just hypocrisy; it is, in fact, complicity with Islamic hardliners.
Jim says
If they continue to portray Muslims as victims in non-Islamic countries, they will enable Muslims to set up their anti-woman societies in these same non-Islamic countries.
PRCS USN (ret) says
They already have.
Not so much in the U.S.–yet, but oh, Europe!
I’m not aware of any mosque, not even those in the west in which women get a front row seat.
Wouldn’t it be informative to see where Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar sit during Friday hatefests.
anita pugh says
I am shocked by American women joining this cruel, violent, and savage system of control called islam. Very young girls undergo female alteration usually with a razor blade and no anesthesia. This guarantees the sexual act will not only be unpleasant but very painful, another form of control. After large numbers of American women learn about islam like this, more women will choose to investigate for themselves before jumping literally into the fire.
jon sobieski says
Maybe. Look at all the muslim women in politics and govt. They draw that bag tight around their face. Why? It is so stupid. Of course Mohammad was a stupid evil man so he just made up rules. He hated women. Women in islam get shafted yet here those activist muslim women are pushing islam, pushing special accomodation for islam, etc. They just brush off these facts about how women are treated in muslim countries.
Hoi Polloi says
Yet another report that reveals just how evil islam is.
So how to get women onsite to rescue women? They won’t allow their own a role. Western women who understand islam wouldn’t go to Afghanistan to get stoned, including muslim women in the west. That leaves all the female defenders and enablers of islam in the west. Let’s draft them into service. Women there will be saved and western defenders might learn. Although I did just read an account of a brutal rape of such a woman by a man she had defended. She blamed the west that rejected the rapist, not the rapist.
Jo Alex SG says
Thank you so much for denouncing all these horrors mainstream media usually are adamant about covering up! I’ve shared your link in all my social media.
40 rounds says
How can one tell if an earthquake actually hits Afghanistan?
gravenimage says
Scientists in civilized countries can track earthquakes anywhere in the world.
Leonidas says
Islam will collapse if we denounce pseudo prophet Muhammad who was a pedophile ( Wife Aisha was 9 years old) a serial murderer, liar, bandit, sex slave trader according to eye witnesses in Sira and Hadith, denounce misogynistic Quran that declares women are half as intelligent as men, wives must be beaten for disobedience, all women will go to hell unless they please their husbands, and must cover their curves and skin so men will not be aroused ,western governments stop accepting Muslim immigrants and subsidizing them and punish those who kill apostates from Islam, blasphemers, adulterers and Muslim hypocrites
https://www.cspii.org/methodology/research-reports/the-principle-of-darura-in-political-islam
jon sobieski says
The Taliban justifies these measures as adherence to Islamic doctrine; in practice, it has institutionalized the treatment of women as second-class citizens,….. which pleases allah.
abu taleb says
If muslims really follow the shariah law on women, they will soon perish because any society needs women as an important part of the society. For example, women are needed in farming like in paddy where usually it is the women who plant the paddy. Under shariah law, women must cover their bodies from head to toes making it impossible to plant the paddy. Besides the heat, the clothes will make it very difficult to move on the muddy soil.
So, no Islamic countries that implement sharia law really implement the rule on women it as what Quran and hadiths say. Those Islamists are really hypocrite.
Troybeam says
Islam has always treated women like dirt, The Quran even states women are lower than dirt, animals get more respect.
Women in Islam should be taken care of by the men because without the women there are no more meals, no more laundry, no more children of either sex. Forgot, men don’t need women for sex they have goats, another Islamic its ok to have with animals when women are not around.
The women of Islam are slaves required to do much, have their identity taken away as women with FGM.
With all of that why do women still submit to Islam voluntarily? Because Islam is the great deceiver will lie about everything written here as I have experienced with a Muslim neighbor.
Sister Alberti says
You forget that men can also have sex with boys up to a certain age/puberty and it is especially prevalent in Afghanistan.
By denying female education, female doctors will become more and more scarce, so healthcare for women will too. Let’s hope that the population will dwindle and die off due to this heinous treatment of wounded and healthy women.
So the supply of young boys to rape will dwindle too!
OLD GUY says
Yes ladies you don’t count and are here to be used and abused by ISLAM. Let that sink in.