Afghanistan bans contraception: Taliban terrorise people not to promote ‘Western conspiracy to control Muslim population
Two of Afghanistan’s major cities no longer sell contraception due to a Taliban ban. The Taliban have been going door to house, threatening midwives and ordering pharmacies to stop selling birth control medications and devices. The militant organisation, which officially rules Afghanistan at the moment, the use of contraceptives by women is a Western conspiracy to control the Muslim population.
While the Kabul-based Taliban Ministry of Public Health has not made any formal statements regarding the prohibition on contraception, residents have anonymously confirmed the report.In Kabul, a store owner claimed that
the Taliban had gone to his shop armed with guns and threatened him to stop selling contraceptive pills. Every pharmacy in the city is regularly checked, and store owners have stopped selling the products, The Guardian reported.
Since the beginning of February, medications including birth control pills and Depo-Provera injections are not permitted to be stored in the pharmacy. Shop-owners are “too afraid to sell the existing stock”, said another owner.
A seasoned midwife told the publication that she was forbidden from promoting the Western idea of population control. The instructions come as Afghanistan happens to be one of the most dangerous places on earth to give birth, with one in every 14 Afghan women dying from pregnancy-related causes.
The most fundamental information on maternal health and family planning was not accessible to the majority of Afghan women, according to a 2021 Human Rights Watch report, even before the Taliban took control of the country.
Due to a lack of access to modern contraceptives, Afghan women frequently have more children than they intend, experience unsafe pregnancies due to inadequate care, and go through operations that might be performed more safely if they had access to and the ability to employ more modern techniques, according to the 2021 report.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), just 17% of Afghanistan’s healthcare facilities that were partially funded by the World Bank were completely operational by September 2021. Women’s rights have come under attack by the Taliban administration, with reports of women being held and arrested for leaving the house without a male guardian. The limitations imposed by the Taliban have reportedly affected women’s and girls’ access to medical treatment.
