Conspiracy to control Muslim population?
The ban on contraceptives marks the latest attack on women's rights by the Taliban who came to power in August 2021 after US troop withdrawal. Since then, the Taliban has ended higher education for girls, closed universities to women, forced women out of their jobs and restricted their ability to leave their homes.
The Taliban has begun enforcing blanket bans on all forms of contraception in two of Afghanistan's two biggest cities, according to Afghan media, in the latest crackdown on women's rights.
Pharmacies and physicians in the capital Kabul and fourth largest city Mazar-e-Sharif confirmed to women-led Afghan outlet Rukhshana Media that Taliban officials have ordered them not to sell any contraceptives.
Sources living in several cities told Rukhshana that the Taliban has stopped importing contraceptives, and although they can still be bought in secret from private sellers, their price has skyrocketed as a result.
A veteran midwife, who did not want to be named, said she had been threatened several times. She said she was told by a Taliban commander: “You are not allowed to go outside and promote the western concept of controlling population and this is unnecessary work.”
Other pharmacists in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif confirmed that they have been ordered not to stock any birth control medicines.
“Items such as birth control pills and Depo-Provera injections are not allowed to be kept in the pharmacy since the start of this month, and we are too afraid to sell the existing stock,” another shop owner in Kabul said.
Afghanistan's Public Health Ministry has not released any statement on the issue, but a source told The Guardian they were informed by Taliban enforcers in Kabul that 'contraceptive use and family planning is a western agenda'.
'The midwife I always visit said the Taliban has told them not to inject contraceptives because it is haram (forbidden),' one woman told Rukhshana. 'When she said that it was haram, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. When I went to buy tablets instead from outside, the price had doubled.'
When the Taliban swept to power in August 2021 amid the U.S. pull-out from Afghanistan, the fundamentalist group claimed there would not be a return to the hardline policies of their predecessors who ruled from 1996 - 2001.
But in the months that followed, women's rights were gradually rolled back as latest generation of Taliban hardliners ratcheted up restrictions.
In December, the Taliban banned university education for women nationwide when the country's Minister for Higher Education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem, issued a letter to all government and private universities instructing them to refuse entry to female students.
'You all are informed to implement the mentioned order of suspending education of females until further notice,' it read.
The order came less than three months after thousands of women and girls sat university entrance exams across the country at a time when the Taliban said they would allow women to undergo an education, provided that they learned in segregated classrooms and covered themselves according the group's strict interpretation of Sharia law.
Women were also only permitted to be taught by women professors or old men.
But women were quickly banned from attending classes at Kabul University as an 'Islamic environment' had not yet been created.
And young girls were also excluded from returning to secondary school, severely limiting university intake.
While Afghan women had fought for and gained basic rights in the past 20 years, millions have now been forced to stay at home and abandon their ambitions.
Many teenage girls have been married off early - often to much older men of their father's choice.
Women have been pushed out of many government jobs - or are being paid a slashed salary to stay at home.
They are also barred from travelling without a male relative, and must cover up outside of the home, ideally with a burqa.
Journalism student Madina, who wanted only her first name published, struggled to comprehend the weight of the orders banning women and girls from university and secondary schools.
What emerged is a picture of a system that is increasingly unaffordable to the estimated 61% to 72% of Afghan women who live in poverty, and one in which women often have more children than they want because of lack of access to modern contraception; face risky pregnancies because of lack of care; and undergo procedures that could be done more safely with access to and capacity to use more modern techniques,” the report revealed.
Activists called on the Taliban to abide by international agreements which set out universal access to sexual and reproductive health care.
“Access to contraception and the right to family planning is not only a matter of human rights; it is also central to women’s empowerment and lifting a country out of poverty,” said Nasimi.
The Qur’an supports women having a gap between pregnancies to raise their children.
However Ustad Faridoon, a Taliban official based in Kandahar, told the Guardian he did not support a total ban.
“Contraceptive use is sometimes medically necessary for maternal health. It is permissible in the Sharia to use contraceptive methods if there is a risk to the mother’s life. Therefore, a complete ban on contraceptives is not right.”
Some reproductive rights experts in Afghanistan contacted by the Guardian were not willing to comment due to security concerns.
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