Women's Mortality Due to Lack of Access to Healthcare Services in Afghanistan

Photo: AP/Bram Janssen

Women and girls in remote areas of Herat province have complained about the lack of access to healthcare services, stating that the absence of doctors and the distance from health centers have led to the death of many patients, particularly pregnant women during childbirth.

These women have emphasized the need for the establishment of healthcare centers and have called on the Taliban's Directorate of Public Health in the province to take serious action in setting up health centers to save the lives of women and girls in remote areas of this province.

Ozra, a 67-year-old elderly woman from the Farsi district of Herat province, sits in a corner of a tent and says that due to the lack of healthcare centers and midwives, most pregnant women experience horrific and abnormal childbirths.

She told Zan TV: "Pregnant women here live in fear before childbirth, afraid they might die because we have no doctors or clinics. Six months ago, my daughter-in-law died during childbirth. We were poor and couldn’t afford to take her to the city. She gave birth at home, and in the end, both she and her baby died."

Nazanin, a 19-year-old who has been married for a year, pleads with the Taliban to establish a healthcare center in her area to save her life and the life of the child she is carrying. She says, "Every morning when I wake up, I thank God that I didn’t go into labor during the night. I am terrified that if my baby is born at night, either I will die or my baby will. We don’t have a vehicle to take me to the hospital in Herat city. As you can see in this village, there are no doctors or medicine. I urge the government to build a clinic for us."

Meanwhile, Kubra, a resident of Chesht district in Herat province, who ill and lies bedridden in a corner of her home, Complaining about the remoteness of the district's health center, she says that on one hand, economic difficulties have prevented her from going to private hospitals, and on the other hand, she has no access to free health centers. "It's been two weeks that my whole body has been in pain. At first, I had a headache, but now my entire body hurts. I didn’t have money to go to a doctor because the cost of the doctor and medicine is too high. There is no clinic in the village to give me free medicine either."

Women in remote areas of Herat province complain about the lack of access to healthcare services and the absence of midwives in their regions. This comes as the Taliban, in December of this year, banned girls from attending medical institutes—a restriction that has sparked strong reactions from national and international organizations.