“It felt like women were invisible… the men and children were treated first.” A survivor of the recent earthquake in Afghanistan said, as reported by the Hindustan Times. This is the condition of women in Afghanistan. The powerful earthquake that struck Afghanistan on September 1 killed more than 2,200 people, injured nearly 4,000, and destroyed many homes. Entire villages were flattened, families dug through rubble with bare hands, and aid workers struggled to reach the remote mountain districts. But amid this immense human tragedy, women were suffered more than men and children. They were victims of Taliban laws that stopped rescuers from saving them. The earthquake has, once again, brought to light the painful condition of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule.

“Women were dragged by their clothes”

In Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, men are not allowed to touch women who are not part of their family. This restriction applied even in the middle of the disaster. Witnesses and survivors said rescuers left women trapped under collapsed homes because no female rescuers were present. How would they be when women are not allowed to work in most industries under Taliban rule? Male rescuers dragged women out by their clothes to avoid direct skin contact, while they never rescued others at all. In the aftermath of a natural disaster, every second matters. But here, hesitation and ideology cost precious lives. Rules mattered more than survival.

Globally, research shows that women are disproportionately affected during disasters. According to UNDP, women and children face a 14-times higher risk of dying in natural disasters compared to men. They also face higher risks of hunger, disease, and violence in the aftermath.

In Afghanistan, this inequality is even sharper. Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban has barred women from most secondary and higher education, stopped them from working in NGOs and international organisations, and restricted them from most public jobs, including health care. As a result, there are virtually no female doctors, nurses, or emergency responders. So when the earthquake struck, rescuers left women, already at greater risk, with almost no safety net. This cruel cycle shows that a society that denies women opportunities also denies them the chance to survive.

The human cost of Taliban policies

This disaster exposes the brutal cost of ideology. Earthquakes may be natural, but letting a woman die because of a rule against touch is not. It is a human choice. It shows how patriarchal laws can turn a natural tragedy into an avoidable catastrophe. The global community now faces a moral dilemma: do we continue sending aid into a system that ensures women will always be last in line, or do we demand that change be part of the response?

People will remember the Afghan earthquake for its death toll and destruction. But it should also serve as a reminder of what it revealed — when a society excludes women, it also excludes them from survival. The earthquake buried Afghan women once, and Taliban rules that made them untouchable buried them a second time. And unless something changes, the aftershocks of this injustice will echo long after the ground has stopped shaking.

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