As Afghanistan approaches the fifth anniversary of Taliban rule on August 15, the country faces a severe humanitarian crisis marked by widespread hunger and escalating restrictions on women. The World Food Programme (WFP) has sharply reduced its food assistance due to funding shortfalls, leaving millions in desperate need amid a looming famine.
Nilofar Hanafi, a WFP hotline operator in Afghanistan, describes the overwhelming volume of distress calls she receives from women pleading for help. Many express such desperation that they threaten self-harm or say they may be forced to marry off children to survive. Hanafi, who requested her name be changed for safety reasons, often has to inform callers that no aid is available in their areas due to funding constraints. “People get angry and emotional,” she said, noting that many callers break down in tears.
According to John Aylieff, country director for the WFP in Afghanistan, six out of seven women and children with life-threatening malnutrition are now turned away from clinics due to aid cuts combined with soaring prices and supply disruptions attributed partly to regional conflicts and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. “We have had to completely stop feeding 14 million people who are acutely hungry,” Aylieff said. “The situation is absolutely bleak.”
Afghanistan’s women and girls are enduring what many experts describe as the world’s most severe female mental health crisis, exacerbated by the Taliban’s increasingly stringent restrictions. Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, girls have been barred from secondary education and universities, while women face bans on working in most jobs, and are forbidden from visiting parks or gyms without a male guardian. Public spaces are patrolled by morality police, who enforce dress codes and arrest women arbitrarily.
Shukria Barakzai, a former Afghan member of parliament who fled the country after the Taliban takeover, describes the ongoing repression as a form of “gender-based lockdown.” The psychological impact is profound, with women living in a constant state of fear and uncertainty, she said.
A recent study from the London School of Economics highlights the toll of these restrictions on women’s mental and physical health. Researchers found widespread feelings of hopelessness, fear, and despair among women, with some turning to tobacco and drugs, and others attempting suicide. Joanna Lewis, director of the Centre for Women, Peace and Security at LSE and co-author of the study, said many women describe their circumstances as being “arrested at home.”
The humanitarian situation is compounded by soaring maternal mortality, now estimated at 600 deaths per 100,000 live births—far higher than in neighboring countries—due to limited healthcare access and rising child marriage rates. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns of the scale of the crisis, with nearly 19 million Afghans facing acute hunger, yet the WFP has received only a fraction of the $500 million it requires for the next six months.
Funding reductions, particularly from the United States, have severely impaired aid delivery. Meanwhile, roughly six million refugees have returned to Afghanistan over the past three years from neighboring Iran and Pakistan, further straining resources.
Hanafi and her 25 colleagues handle more than 11,000 calls monthly, mostly from women in desperate conditions. Many call with stories of domestic violence, poverty, and unbearable hardship. One caller from Balkh recounted how her drug-addicted husband’s abuse left her contemplating selling their 11-year-old daughter to survive. Hanafi had to inform her that no assistance was available in that region.
The convergence of malnutrition, mental health crises, and intensified gender-based repression paints a grim picture for Afghan women and children as the country faces continuing instability and humanitarian collapse under Taliban rule.