Earthquake in Afghanistan: When silence kills

The earthquake that recently struck Afghanistan has left a trail of destruction and death. Thousands of people have lost their lives, thousands more have been injured, and behind every number are broken stories, destroyed families, and futures snatched away. But amidst this immense pain, there is one wound that bleeds even more than all the others: that of Afghan women.

I've been speaking these days with the women who work for the organization Ponts per la Pau (Bridges for Peace) that supports Afghan women and girls. In particular, one of them, Arezo Ahmadi, tells me through tears that her sister only had one year left to finish her medical studies. A shocking reality hits me: after the catastrophe, many women have been unable to receive medical care because there were no doctors available. The Taliban, with their inhumane restrictions, have prevented graduates from Spien Ghar University—women trained and knowledgeable in saving lives—from being there to care for those affected. These doctors existed, were trained, and could have been with the victims, but their right to practice—like the right to study today in Afghanistan—their right to exist, has been denied.

This is not just a public health problem: we are dealing with a murder by omission. When girls' education and women's professional careers are prohibited, they are not only robbed of their future; they are condemned to death. Today, amid the rubble and dust of the earthquake, there are women who could be alive, could still be among us, if the world had acted to guarantee and protect Afghan women's fundamental right to education and equality.

Every time a school is closed to girls, every time a university expels students, what is closed is not just a door to knowledge: it is a door to life. This earthquake has exposed Afghanistan's deepest tragedy: there is not only natural destruction, there is a deliberate human destruction against women.

The question that should haunt everyone watching this tragedy is how many more lives will have to be lost before the world takes action? How many more women will have to die in silence before they are recognized as human beings with the same right to study, work, and live as anyone else.

The earthquake shook the earth, but Afghan women have been living under a constant earthquake for years: that of repression, invisibility, and injustice. Today we cannot remain silent. We must raise our voices, here and everywhere, because without women's right to education and freedom, there will never be peace or hope in Afghanistan.