About 60 percent of infants and children being treated for malnourishment in Kandahar province are female, health sources say. According to statistics from Kandahar’s Mirwais Seminary Hospital’s children’s department, the province has one of the highest rates of malnourishment in the country after Kabul.
In the last eight months, 74 children have died of malnourishment out of 1,860 children being treated at the Mirwais Seminary Hospital. In the last month alone, 10 children died of malnourishment out of the 240 children being treated. Most of the children who die are under the age of five.
The number of malnourished children who require hospital care is rising every year, and the gap between how many boys and how many girls require treatment is also growing, with the number of girls being treated for malnourishment rising steeply this year. In 2020, a total 1,711 children were treated, according to the hospital statistics. Of these, 815 were boys and 911 were girls. In 2021, the total number treated was 2,399 children, including 1,099 boys and 1,300 girls. In the first six months of the solar year 1401, that’s from March 21 to November 21, already 1,859 children have been admitted to this hospital, 800 of them boys and 1,059 were girls.
According to Dr. Mohammad Sediq Sediq, a specialist and head of the pediatric department of Mirwais Hospital, the lack of healthy nutrition for mothers during pregnancy, families’ lack of access to proper health services, and not vaccinating children are among the main reasons for the high number of malnourished children in Kandahar.
After the Ghani government collapsed in August 2021 and the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, the whole country has seen a dramatic increase in child malnutrition. The International Committee of the Red Cross recently said that cases have increased by 90 percent year on year.
The higher number of girls needing treatment is due to favoritism towards sons, Dr. Sediq believes.
“In our society, boys are valued more than girls and families pay a lot of attention to boys,” he says. “People believe that boys will be the breadwinners of the family, and that’s how it is,” he says.
Some people Rukhshana Media spoke to in Kandahar support this theory. They say in some parts of the province, it is not uncommon to reserve the good food for male members of the family. Dr. Sediq, who mostly deals with the families, says that he believes the culture is wrong on this matter, but it has deep roots in Kandahar society and is difficult to shift.
“In houses where the number of family members is large, men eat bread in one place and women in another place,” he says. “Good food is given to men. If there is anything left from them, women will eat it.”
Women who are pregnant are also treated like this in families where this is practiced, which further makes problems for the infant after he or she is born, Dr Sediq says.
A typical family in Kandahar is quite large with many children, and it is not uncommon to find the dining areas divided into women’s and men’s.
Ahmadullah Azizi, a civil activist in Kandahar, says that this custom is relatively rare in the city, but there are many families outside the city who still adhere to it and use it to discriminate against women in some way.
“This (practice) has many negative effects,” he says. “There are families that do not pay attention to women at all. In many houses, the tables for women and men are separated and because of the guest, good food is given to the men’s section.”
A 35-year-old man from Zherai district of Kandahar, who does not want to be named in the report, says that a family of 70 people lives in his neighborhood. He says that dining for men and women in that family is separate.
“Men eat first and then women,” he says. “If the food is scarce and there are many guests, it is natural that good and more food is given to the men and there is nothing or little left for the women.”
Dr. Ahmadullah Faizi, head of the children’s department in a public health department in Kandahar, says that every six of ten malnourished children are girls.
“Girls’ food is not taken care of because families discriminate against them,” he says. “People say, ‘Don’t give a girl proper food. Girls belong to another house.’ Meaning that they will eventually go to another family after then get married.”
Dr. Sayed Ahmad Shadab, Deputy Director of Public Health of the Taliban in Kandahar, says that the condition of malnourished children in the province is tragic.
“When someone goes to the district and sees the conditions there, the situation is very sad,” he says. “There are children who you see who are alive but they look dead.”
According to Mr. Shadab, many women who are malnourished themselves have given birth to children.
“How can a mother who is malnourished herself raise a child?” Mr. Shadab asks. “If a mother can’t get anything to eat and breastfeed her child because of her own poverty, then what will be the condition of the child?”
Bibi Jan, 30, is resident of the 15th district of Kandahar. Fifteen years ago, when she was 15 years old, she married a man against her will who was about 20 years older than her. She has given birth to nine children so far, most of whom died from malnourishment. Only three have survived – two sons and one daughter.
She has brought her six-month-old daughter, who is acutely malnourished, to the hospital for treatment and her daughter has been hospitalized.
“This is my ninth child,” she says. “The others all starved to death.”
“This is the 30th day that my daughter has been in bed.” It is unclear whether her daughter will survive.
