Earthquake in Afghanistan: Women agonize for days because only female doctors can treat them

Kabul“I endured pain for many nights until the female doctors arrived. Only now I am beginning to feel some relief”, says Qamro Jan, an Afghan woman who has been in agony for days after being seriously injured by the powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan on Monday, with its epicenter in Kunar province. Kunar is one of the most conservative provinces in the country, and male doctors rarely treat women. In other words, only a female doctor can assist them. Under the Taliban, this situation has worsened, and the earthquake has been devastating: hundreds of injured women have had to wait hours and days without medical assistance until doctors from international organizations arrived in the area. And yet, they are not enough.

The earthquake has already caused more than 2,200 deaths and 3,600 injuries, and this Saturday there were new aftershocks with a magnitude of up to 5.2 on the Richter scale. Rescue teams continue working to help victims and recover bodies from the rubble, but they are overwhelmed.

Kunar is a particularly mountainous area, and landslides triggered by the quake have blocked roads, delaying the arrival of heavy machinery. In many villages, no excavators or bulldozers are available, and people are still digging with pickaxes, shovels, and sometimes their bare hands. Every day, new bodies are pulled out. Some are already decomposing, spreading a suffocating stench of death that makes the air itself dangerous to breathe.

Organizations such as UNICEF, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Save the Children have sent nurses and doctors to the earthquake site, but they are not enough to care for the many injured women. Taliban officials claim to have deployed medical teams to the quake zone, yet in the official photographs shared by the Ministry of Public Health, no women can be seen among the staff

Since the Taliban seized power in 2021, their successive decrees have forced many educated professionals including female doctors to leave the country. Others, faced with Taliban rules such as the requirement of a male guardian (mahram) to accompany them, abandoned their posts or relocated to Kabul and provinces where restrictions are less severe. On top of this, the Taliban’s ban on women’s higher education, including medical and midwifery institutes, has cut off the pipeline of new female health workers. As a result, only a handful of female doctors remain in Kunar.

Pregnant women are among the most vulnerable. Aid workers reported that some endured dangerous complications while waiting in makeshift tents for a female doctor to examine them. “The condition of people here is critical. Women are not only physically injured but also deeply traumatized. We try to treat as many patients as we can, but those we cannot help must be transferred to distant hospitals”, says a volunteer doctor working in a mobile clinic

Widows face an uncertain future. With their husbands buried under the rubble, many are left alone with young children, without income, land, or protection in a society where men are traditionally the breadwinners.

In village after village, survivors recount the same scenes of loss: children screaming under collapsed roofs, mothers pulling lifeless bodies of their babies from the dust, fathers digging with empty hands in search of their families. Among the survivors is Abdul Majid, an elderly farmer from Kunar Province, survived the quake, but his life has been shattered. “Two daughters, my wife, and my son were crushed under the ruins,” he says, his voice heavy with despair. “I was powerless to save them. Even my cattle, my only source of livelihood, were killed. Only one of my daughters survived, but she is wounded “

The wounded have been taken to local clinics in Kunar and to hospitals in neighboring Nangarhar province. Yet the influx of thousands of patients has overwhelmed the fragile health system. Beds are full, corridors are crowded, and many of the injured are lying on the floors or inside makeshift tents. Doctors report that most injuries are broken bones, head traumas, and internal bleeding caused by collapsing mud-brick homes.

For those who could not be transported to a hospital, mobile medical teams have been dispatched. But the number of teams is limited, and countless people endured days of pain before reaching a doctor. Some still have not.

Medicines are scarce. Even bandages and painkillers are running out. Families are told to buy drugs from private pharmacies, but many survivors have lost everything and cannot afford even the cheapest pills. “We had nothing before. Now we have less than nothing,” says one villager.

There's lack of food and drinking water

The survivors are not only mourning the dead; they are also struggling to stay alive. Aftershocks have shaken the region repeatedly, forcing families to sleep outside in the open, too afraid to return to their partially standing homes. Makeshift tents dot the devastated landscape, offering little protection against the wind and cold nights.

Food and clean water are in short supply. Aid convoys from international agencies such as WFP, UNAMA, and the ICRC have delivered flour, oil, and lentils, but distribution is slow, and the needs far exceed the supplies.

Local communities from other provinces have also mobilized, collecting donations of food, medicine, and tents to deliver to survivors. Akhtar Gul, a local volunteer who traveled to Mazardara village, where local officials say more than 1,820 people were killed, explained why he came: “I traveled here to help the survivors and brought whatever supplies I could carry. People are in desperate need, and we cannot leave them alone". Other volunteers describe horrific scenes: fathers carrying the bodies of their children in blankets, entire families buried together, neighbors holding funerals for dozens at a time...

The Taliban have tried to project themselves as efficient responders. Their officials were quick to call on businessmen and NGOs to send help, and state media broadcast images of Taliban leaders visiting affected areas. Yet, survivors quietly point out that most of the real assistance has come from international agencies and ordinary Afghans from other provinces who collected donations of food, clothes, and medicines.

Unlike in other crises, the Taliban have allowed Afghan journalists and even vloggers to access the earthquake-hit areas. Reports and images of collapsed homes and mass funerals are circulating widely in Afghan media and social networks. The earthquake in eastern Afghanistan is not just a natural disaster it is a human catastrophe unfolding in one of the poorest and most fragile corners of the world. Entire families have been erased and survivors are left with nothing. International aid is needed.