It has been a time of natural calamities for India and some of its neighbours. Pakistan and parts of western and northern India faced devastating floods while an estimated 2,200 people died in a devastating earthquake in Afghanistan. Among the three nations, the relief and rehabilitation of women victims faced a peculiar challenge in Afghanistan. Prevailing, orthodox cultural norms, arguably made even more hawkish by the ruling Taliban — the norms remained in place despite the disaster — posed significant challenges to Afghan women in their hour of peril. For example, there have been reports of all-male rescue teams ignoring injured women on account of rules that forbid any kind of contact between women and men who are not connected by kinship. Women trapped under collapsed buildings and stones were, on occasion, left to wait for women from other villages to help them get rescued and reach a place of safety. There was another relevant lacuna. Afghanistan faces a critical shortage of healthcare workers, particularly women personnel. Their absence adversely affected the fate of Afghan women and girls trapped or injured in the calamity.
That Afghan women have to bear the weight of the debris of social discrimination is well-known. Their rights to education have been weakened; they suffer restrictions on their mobility and are denied employment. Numerous reports by humanitarian organisations as well as the World Bank have also warned against the pitfalls of pursuing such a gender insensitive policy: not only do they bring immense strain on Afghanistan’s economy and social fabric but, as this earthquake showed, also seriously compromise women’s welfare and safety. In fact, there is evidence from research to suggest that globally, women are suffering disproportionately during episodes of natural calamities and extreme weather events. The cause lies in embedded prejudice and unfairness within society and State policy. The international community has perhaps a role to play in preventing this gender chasm from worsening. Negotiations to end the Taliban’s status as a global pariah could be predicated on meaningful interventions by the regime to improve women’s lives in that country. Too often, Afghanistan’s strategic location on the table on which unfolds the proverbial Great Game forces representatives of the international order to choose geopolitical imperatives over moral considerations, such as the rights of the besieged Afghan women. That must change if Afghanistan is to become equitable as a society.