Key Highlights
- Taliban fighters have been destroying stocks of contraceptives, claiming their use is a western conspiracy to control the Muslim population.
- ettyTaliban birth control ban: women ‘broken’ by lethal pregnancies and untreated miscarriagesWomen across Afghanistan describe the traumatic impact of disappearing clinics and contraceptionParwana* no longer recognises her own children.
- Once known for her beauty in her village in Kandahar province, the 36-year-old sits on the floor of her mother’s home, rocking silently.
- After nine pregnancies and six miscarriages, many under pressure from her husband and in-laws, Parwana has slipped into a permanent state of confusion.“She is lost,” says her mother, Sharifa.
- “They broke her with fear, pregnancies and violence.”Since the Taliban’s informal birth-control ban began spreading across Afghanistan in 2023, the country’s reproductive health system has gone into freefall.
