Women Think of Suicide Due to Mental Illness Under Taliban Rule
A number of Afghan women have contracted mental illness due to homelessness, unemployment and fear of the Taliban. Some of these women even think of suicide to escape problems. Zarmina, a 23-year-old who suffers from Taliban rule, says she wanted to become a journalist and continue her education in the future, but since the Taliban took power in Kabul, all their joys have been dashed and she does not even want to leave home. “When I leave the house, I think the Taliban are behind me, who may kill me at any moment with the weapon in their hands,” he says. I’m really scared, that’s why I’ve reduced my travels to the Republican government. I think my mental problems are getting worse day by day. “The situation in Kabul is really worrying since the Taliban took control of Kabul and prevented us from going to university. Doors are shut upon us.
Nazia, a resident of Kart-e-Naw said: “When I think about freedom, we were deprived of Taliban rule and maybe I will never go to work again. I feel nervous. I think the world is turning upside down and I have lost all my achievements,”, Kabul. “It’s hard for me. It makes me lose my temper and I feel like I’m in captivity and waiting for my death”.
Maryam staff of, one of the government departments, says that she suffers from this situation. When I lost my job and became unemployed, my life is of no value to me. She says that she was depressed because she was the only breadwinner in her family of seven. Women under the Taliban flag are described as sentenced to life imprisonment.
Shayesta Afghan, an employee of a government agency and a resident of Kabul, also suffers from this condition.
Like thousands of other women, I lost my job and unemployment is very stressful for me. The economy of most other women has collapsed. I am like that.
Wahid Azizi, an employee of a government agency, says, “More and more women have been fired from their jobs, and their jobs are currently unknown, and the fact that their future is unknown has negatively affected their thinking and emotions and ruined their mood. They are in their comfort zone, my mood is very bad, I have lost my job and I am worried about my future. Going abroad is not good for me either. I do not sleep at night. I am about to go crazy”.
It has been more than four months since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, and during this time the Taliban have not allowed most women to study and work, and as a result, a number of women have contracted mental illness.
Although there are no accurate statistics on mental illness in Taliban-dominated Afghanistan, overcrowding in psychiatric examinations has increased.
Psychiatrists have attributed the prevalence of mental illness to unemployment and poverty. They know their 20-year achievements among women.