“But since this year, the schools are not open, so people lost their hopes. ![]() The government promised that they will open the schools,” he said. “Last year, everyone had a hope that next year the schools will be open. Taliban compounds misery for women in Afghanistan with order to close all beauty salons (Photo by WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP) (Photo by WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images) Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images TOPSHOT - Afghan burqa-clad women sit in front of a beauty salon with images of women defaced using spray paint in Jalalabad on December 13, 2021. “I don’t see any good future for anyone in this country,” he said.Īnother group of girls has just graduated from sixth grade – the end of their education under Taliban rules.Īhmadi fears that will mean another wave of self-harm and suicide. I don’t see any good future for anyone in this country.Īhmadi says he tries to tell them things will get better, that schools will reopen, that they can work at home while they wait, tailoring or doing something that gives them purpose.īut the truth is he doesn’t know if classes will ever resume, and his own hope is fading. Rat poison, liquid chemicals, cleaning fluids, and farming fertilizer – anything they think will ease their grief. Their lives restricted by the Taliban, girls and women are turning to cheap household items to attempt suicide, he said. Around 10% of those patients kill themselves, he said. He’s using a pseudonym because he fears the Taliban will punish him for speaking to foreign media.Īhmadi said the number of female patients at his clinic has surged 40% to 50% since the Taliban’s takeover two years ago. Shikib Ahmadi has been working six days a week and longer hours than ever, seeing patients at a mental health clinic in Afghanistan’s western Herat province. As they told CNN their story, Arzo silently wept.Įxperts say reliable statistics on suicide and suicide attempts aren’t compiled in Afghanistan, but rights groups and doctors say they’ve seen an increase under Taliban rule.ĭr. The siblings don’t normally talk about why their little sister is so unwell – they don’t want to upset her. ![]() I’m hoping you will be fine soon.”ĬNN is not using Arzo’s or her siblings’ real names because they fear reprisals from the Taliban, and being discovered by Pakistani officials, who have deported more than 26,000 Afghans since announcing a crackdown on undocumented migrants in October.īeing forcibly returned to Afghanistan would mean certain death for the 15-year-old, her siblings say, because she needs medical care they say isn’t available in their home country. “Don’t worry,” whispers Ahamad, as he kisses Arzo’s hand. Her older brother and sister, Ahamad and Mahsa, now care for her in a rented room in Karachi, their temporary refuge from life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. To pass the time, she watches makeup videos on her cellphone, the glow of the screen illuminating the faded freckles of a teenager whose skin now rarely sees the sun.Īrzo is a long way from her home in Afghanistan, where she lived with her parents before being smuggled across the border for medical treatment. Arzo is so weak she spends most of her day lying on a thin mattress in a dimly lit room under a ceiling fan that steadily circulates the polluted air of Pakistan’s largest city.
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