Afghanistan: battered women in need facing the closure of shelters dedicated to them

At 22 years, Fatema endured it all: rapes, beatings, hunger: “I tried to kill myself. I drank sulfuric acid. I was even hospitalized for a month and a half.“ Despite the doctors’ recommendations, her mother-in-law does not let her return to the hospital for surgery, nor does she buy her medicine. After two painful marriages, she finds refuge in the structure of Mahbouba Will be, one of the few at have remained open since the return to power of taliban.

And the director of the refuge does not hide her concerns about this situation: “Domestic violence is still present in homes and families in villages. The only thing that has changed is that these women know that the second they leave their home they will be arrested and sent to jail.“, deplores the director of the Kabul refuge. In the previous government there was a women’s ministry and 24 refuges, almost all funded by the international community. According to the UN, 87% of Afghan women have suffered physical, sexual or psychological violence.