Centuries-old customs and Taliban-imposed gender restrictions are compounding the tragedy for Afghan women following the recent deadly earthquake, which killed at least 2,200 people and reduced scores of buildings to rubble. Women have often been the last to be rescued, or not rescued at all, due to ‘no skin contact with unrelated males’ rule that forbids male rescues from touching them.
Strict cultural and religious norms, enforced by the Taliban government in Afghanistan, permit only a woman’s close male relative, her father, brother, husband or son, to touch her and similarly, women are prohibited from touching men outside their family.
This rule makes the situation even more dire in the absence of female rescue workers, a consequence of the Taliban’s ban on women’s enrollment in medical education and other public roles. As a result, women trapped under debris are sometimes left behind while the dead are pulled out, further underscoring how gender rules, not just rubble, are obstructing rescue efforts in a country ruled by the Taliban for the past four years.
“They gathered us in one corner and forgot about us,” a New York Time report quoted Bibi Aysha as she recalled how rescue teams arrived more than 36 hours after a massive earthquake devastated her village in Afghanistan’s mountainous Kunar Province.
But instead of being helped, Aysha and other injured women and girls, out of which some were bleeding, were ignored. No one offered the women help, asked what they needed or even approached them.
Tahzeebullah Muhazeb, a 33-year-old male volunteer who reached the nearby village of Mazar Dara, also described the grim on-ground reality to the global publication and said: women trapped under rubble were left waiting while male rescue workers hesitated to touch them, fearing the cultural consequences of interacting with unrelated women.
In some cases, female victims remained buried until women from neighbouring areas arrived to help. “It felt like women were invisible,” said Muhazeb, adding that men and children were treated first, while the women were just sitting apart, waiting for care. If no male relative was present, he added, the dead were dragged out by their clothes to avoid physical contact.
