Reports from Afghan health workers reveal a surge in female suicides, linked to severe restrictions on women’s freedoms under Taliban rule.

In the wake of the Taliban’s return to power, the mental health crisis in Afghanistan has deepened, with an alarming rise in suicides among women. Latifa*, an 18-year-old from central Ghor province, was one of the many to feel trapped by the harsh reality imposed on Afghan women. After the Taliban banned education for girls above elementary school and arranged a forced marriage to a cousin addicted to heroin, Latifa felt she had no future. “I had two options: to marry an addict and live a life of misery or take my own life,” she shared in a phone interview. Tragically, she chose the latter.

This distressing act is far from isolated. Data from hospitals and mental health clinics in several provinces across Afghanistan reveals a steep increase in female suicides and suicide attempts since the Taliban seized control in 2021. Although the Taliban has not released official figures and has even forbidden health workers from sharing updated statistics, private data suggests Afghanistan may now be one of the few countries globally where more women die by suicide than men.

The figures are partial, but they provide a sobering snapshot of the crisis affecting Afghan women. They highlight the severe impact of Taliban policies, which have stripped women of basic rights, including access to education, work, and even public spaces like parks and bathhouses. As a result, many Afghan women are seeing suicide as a way out of their unbearable circumstances.

UN officials, such as Alison Davidian from UN Women, have called this a “women’s rights crisis” that is driving the country into a broader mental health emergency. “We are witnessing a moment where growing numbers of women and girls see death as preferable to living under the current circumstances,” she stated.

Before the Taliban’s takeover, men outnumbered women in suicide rates in Afghanistan. However, recent data from health providers shows a drastic shift, with women now making up the majority of suicide victims and survivors of suicide attempts. The youngest recorded victims were in their early teens, underscoring the profound impact of the Taliban’s oppressive policies on Afghanistan’s female population.

The disturbing trend underscores the urgent need for international attention to Afghanistan’s mental health crisis, especially as women and girls continue to bear the brunt of the Taliban’s oppressive rule.