By Tamana Taban
Data from a provincial hospital in Afghanistan shows girls and women are seeking medical support for mental health at staggeringly high levels.
The unofficial figures obtained by Rukhshana Media for a Bamyan provincial hospital have revealed 1,965 women and girls sought treatment for mental health problems in the first 10 months of 2023.
The patients were primarily girls and young women reporting symptoms such as persistent hopelessness, lack of motivation, sadness, headaches, loss of appetite, and constant, unwanted sorrow.
Local sources told Rukhshana Media that the actual number of sufferers is even higher with many more patients seeking medical help privately.
Many residents of Bamyan are unaware of the services available at the Bamyan provincial hospital mental health department as it only recently started providing high level treatment.
Previously it only provided counseling services but a specialized psychiatric care and treatment unit was established about three months ago, with as many as 20 beds available with one specialist, three doctors, and five nurses.
Masooma*, 21, is one of the patients receiving treatment. She had just completed high school when the country fell to the Taliban. She took the university entrance exam and scored enough to study economics at Bamyan University. However, soon after, the Taliban barred female students from attending universities.
“The worst day of my life was hearing this news. When I found out about university closure, I felt like I had fallen from the sky to the ground,” she said.
“For three days and nights, I couldn’t eat. I kept wishing that it was just a bad dream.”
She regarded this as the beginning of her isolation and depression. She searched for an alternative way to fill the void left by the closure of the university, and eventually took up sewing, but that attempt failed.
“My father strongly opposed it. He told me, ‘I will never allow you to go to the market. Even now, when you leave the house for a short time, I worry endlessly until you return. The Taliban cannot be trusted. God forbid, one day, something bad might happen to you’.”
Since that day, Masooma said her days were spent locked away at home.
“Since then, I feel like I’m a prisoner. We grew up in a free environment. During this time, even my father hadn’t been very strict,” she said.
“Now, I don’t understand why he doesn’t understand us, or maybe we just can’t understand him.”
Masooma said her mental health issues became more severe six months ago.
This is the third time she has been hospitalized in the psychiatric department in the hospital. The first time was September 22, when she stayed for four days. The second time was October 11 for six days. And the third time she was admitted on November 8.
Families in Afghanistan have become increasingly concerned about the rise in suicide attempts and ideation among girls with many citing the Taliban’s restrictions as the main driver of the growing mental health crisis.
The latest report from UN Women found that 69 percent of women in Afghanistan experience anxiety, isolation, and depression.
Masooma’s mother Sakina* said she was terrified about her daughter’s health and what fate awaits her.
The 52-year-old, who is taking care of her daughter at the hospital, said, “Her condition is not good at all. After her father didn’t allow her to go to the market and learn sewing, she couldn’t sleep properly for many nights. Masooma’s condition has been getting worse every day.”
Sakina said that her daughter has been attemping to harm herself.
“Sometimes her condition gets so bad that she bites her own hands, slaps them, and if someone stops her, she slaps them too,” Sakina said.
In October the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated in a report, that a new Taliban law mandating women to cover their faces and treating the voice of women to be Awra or an “intimate part” has increased the “anger, depression, and hopelessness” in women.
Adila Zakeri, a 31-year-old doctor at a private clinic in the center of Bamyan, said that over the past two years, many young women and girls have come to her seeking help for mental health issues.
“Although we don’t have exact statistics on these patients because we haven’t focused on this issue yet, I can say with certainty that more than 50 women and young girls with mental health issues come to us every month,” she said.
“The main cause of mental health problems among women and young girls is the Taliban’s restrictions. They have banned education, work, social activities, and even going out for women.
“These factors inevitably have a very negative and destructive impact on women’s mental well-being.”
She said that the pressure from families out of fear of the Taliban has made the situation even worse.
“Families are afraid of the environment created by the Taliban, and as a result, they try to keep their women and daughters from going out of the house,” she said.
“Most of the women and girls who come to us say they feel like they’re in prison because they can no longer go out freely and are deprived of all human activities.”
Ozra*, 56, brought her 24-year-old daughter to the Bamyan psychiatric department.
She said her daughter was in third year of university and working as a teacher at a school when the Taliban’s restrictions confined her to home.
She said that her daughter has become progressively more isolated, depressed, and less talkative.
“Sometimes her chest hurts, and when the pain hits, she starts frothing at the mouth and loses consciousness for about an hour, only groaning. When I see my daughter like this, my heart breaks. I feel like I’m melting away, I don’t know what to do,” she said.
“We’ve taken her to Kabul several times, to very well-known doctors, but there has been no improvement in her condition.
“In this past year, we’ve tried everything. People said, ‘Make a vow,’ so we did. They said, ‘Offer a sacrifice,’ so we sacrificed a goat several times. We’ve tried doctors’ medicines, which she always carries with her.
“Whenever she goes anywhere, I send someone with her because I’m afraid she’ll be attacked and lose control. Many times, we don’t even allow her to go anywhere.”
Widespread arrests of girls and women under a false pretext of wearing an inappropriate hijab, mistreating women in detention, threatening families, and torturing them in prisons are some of the main tactics used by the Taliban to instill fear into communities and see girls and women prevented from going outside for safety concerns.
These practices have been widely implemented in several cities across Afghanistan, leading to widespread fear within families.
Note: Names are changed due to security reasons.
