The Taliban decided to ban the sale and prescription of birth control pills in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif. Their distribution would be considered a “conspiracy by the West to control the Muslim population.” As an investigation by the Guardian reported, some government representatives allegedly went door to door with guns, threatening midwives and ordering pharmacies to throw their birth control pills away.
The owner of a pharmacy in the capital told the British newspaper, “They came twice with a gun drawn and asked me not to sell birth control pills anymore. They regularly check every pharmacy in Kabul. We stopped the sale of these products.” Similar statements came from other pharmacists in the city and in Mezar-i Sharif. A midwife who worked behind her for years said she was threatened several times, requesting that her name not be disclosed. A Taliban commander told him he “did not have the authority to advertise the use of Western devices for birth control”.
Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban have banned women from studying at universities and forced women to quit their jobs. Restrictions on the use of birth control pills are likely to have very serious consequences in a country with the highest mortality rate among pregnant women in the world, with one in 14 pregnant women dying from childbirth-related consequences. For now, the Ministry of Health has not yet issued a decree.
A 2021 Human Rights Watch report said that even before the Taliban returned to power, most Afghan women lacked the most basic information about reproductive health and family planning. “A picture emerges of the system becoming increasingly inaccessible for 61-72 percent of Afghan women who live in poverty and often have more children than they want because they do not have access to modern birth control methods,” and they “face risky risks” for care, the report said. pregnancies are discussed because of the lack of access and the ability to use and access more modern techniques and procedures that can be performed more safely.
That’s why human rights activists have asked the Taliban to respect international agreements that provide universal access to sexual and reproductive health services.
Source: Today IT
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