Years of protracted instability caused by the Taliban insurgency have hindered a full understanding of the challenges faced by Afghans with disabilities, and now that the Taliban have returned to power, there are even fewer opportunities to gather an accurate assessment of disability in the country, and particularly women with disabilities.
Attempting to hold Afghanistan’s disabled to account
Still, many continue to try, with varying degrees of success. According to a report released by the Afghan government in 2018, the estimated number of people with disabilities in Afghanistan is 1.2 million, of which 41 percent are women. However, at the time, about half of Afghanistan’s population lived in Taliban-controlled or conflict zones, making it impractical to conduct surveys in those areas, and no surveys were conducted.
Meanwhile, the Asia Foundation’s 2019 Disability Model Study reports that an astonishing four in five Afghan adults and one in five Afghan children have a physical, sensory, intellectual, or psychosocial disability. Human Rights Watch, citing a 2005 government report, also noted that roughly one in five Afghan households (1.2 million families) have a member with a severe disability, and two in five households have some kind of disability.
Recent history of disability in Afghanistan
Despite significant shortcomings and challenges during the Republic of Afghanistan era, initial strides were made towards advancing the rights of persons with disabilities in Afghanistan, including constitutional provisions prohibiting discrimination and allowing for the provision of financial assistance to persons with disabilities.
The enactment of the National Law on the Rights and Benefits of Persons with Disabilities in 2010 marked a landmark moment in opening the door to the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the social, political and economic spheres. Moreover, the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol in 2012 underscored the country’s commitment to recognizing the rights of persons with disabilities.
During the Republic, however, a distinction was made between people who were disabled as a result of war injuries and those who were born with a disability or who had a disability unrelated to the war. People with war-related disabilities were entitled to social assistance, while those with non-war-related disabilities were often marginalized.
Moreover, assistance allocated to the latter group was irregular and highly dependent on personal connections within the government ministries responsible for distributing assistance for people with disabilities. This led to further inconsistencies and discrimination, with many disabled women in western Afghanistan with non-war-related disabilities being denied government assistance, while women with similar disabilities in some northern provinces received consistent social assistance from ministries.
Since coming to power in 2021, the Taliban have introduced measures aimed at monitoring the distribution of financial assistance to people with disabilities, regardless of the cause of their disability. While this may seem like the Taliban has expanded the scope of their assistance to people with disabilities, in reality, they have simply substituted one bias for another. The Taliban’s resource allocation significantly favors Taliban members with disabilities over everyone else.
The Taliban adjusted welfare benefit totals. Currently, Taliban members with disabilities receive between 60,000 afghanis ($820) and 180,000 afghanis ($2,460) per year, while non-Taliban disabled persons who sustained war-related injuries during the Republic of Afghanistan receive between 36,000 afghanis ($490) and 96,000 afghanis ($1,315), about 53-60 percent less than disabled Taliban members.
These changes do not adequately address the needs of non-Taliban people with disabilities, and while disabled Taliban members receive benefits promptly, the same cannot be said for others.
Disproportionate challenges faced by Afghan women with disabilities
“Women with disabilities face particularly high discrimination, isolation, insults and humiliation in Afghan society and endure unjust accusations that they bring shame to their families solely because of their disability. This increases anxiety and depression and Afghan women with disabilities have to contend with stigma, discrimination and exclusion every day, undermining their dignity and quality of life,” said Afghan President Abdulaziz al-Hassan Ali.
For those who are born with disabilities, the difficulties are even more pronounced. To protect their disabled family members from social humiliation and scorn, many families are forced to completely hide their severely disabled family members from the outside world. This predicament is especially pronounced in the case of girls with mental disabilities.
With the Taliban’s return to power, various restrictions and bans on women’s employment have left women with disabilities unable to earn an income on their own. A 25-year-old woman from a northern province in Afghanistan revealed that she and her four siblings have been visually impaired since birth. Despite having a university degree, she struggles to find employment. “My family invested in my education so that I could live independently and earn a living. But the Taliban’s ban on women’s employment has shattered my dreams and those of my family,” she lamented.
The ban on women working and the lack of comprehensive support programs for people with disabilities have forced many women with disabilities to beg on the streets, where they endure poor conditions. But Human Rights Watch reports that the Taliban’s requirement that women be accompanied by a mahram (close relative) further compounds the challenges faced by women and girls with disabilities, as even the terrifying and dangerous act of begging is now not an option for many, and they are excluded from all public life.
I spoke to a 24-year-old woman who lost a leg in the explosion, and she told me that not only is she unable to find a job that pays her well, but she also has no male relatives to accompany her when she goes out. This leaves her feeling helpless and hopeless. She expressed it this way: “Being a woman and disabled, I am like a prisoner at home. I have no father or brothers to accompany me when I go out.”
Meanwhile, disability grant payments under the Taliban are erratic, forcing many families to borrow from friends and relatives to cover living expenses while waiting for their next payment. This is particularly difficult for women, who have limited employment opportunities and stable sources of income to repay these loans.
A woman from western Afghanistan shared the difficulties of living in the country as a blind person. Despite being educated and working under the Republican government, she now faces unemployment under the Taliban regime. She currently receives two instalments of 60,000 Afghanis (equivalent to $820) at the beginning and end of the year. She revealed that while the instalment is not being paid, her family is struggling to find enough money for food, borrowing money from neighbours and relatives.
Another Afghan woman with a disability, a former law student, told a similar story: “The de facto government provides us with 18,000 Afghanis ($260) every six months, but between payments the family is forced to borrow money. With widespread poverty, even borrowing money is very difficult these days.”
Closing the door to the future for women and girls with disabilities
The former law student’s story also touches on another particularly worrying trend under the Taliban: girls who are blind or hearing impaired are expelled from schools designed to meet their specific needs, and NGOs are barred from providing vital awareness-raising and mental health services.
By also cutting off access to education, the Taliban are not only relegating women and girls with disabilities to dire and poor economic situations, but also closing the door on their future. As the former law student told me, her desire is simple yet powerful: to earn an income in a dignified way. She firmly believes in the capabilities of her intelligence, stating, “I didn’t choose my disability, and it doesn’t make me completely useless.”
The goal of being self-sufficient was common among the women I spoke to. One woman who became paralyzed from the waist down due to polio at age seven said she had a third-grade education but still wanted to pursue further education and gain employable skills, envisioning a future where she could provide for both herself and her family.
Another woman in her late 20s, who was born with paralysis in her legs, said she made it to her second year of college before the Taliban banned female students from attending university, and that despite this setback, she dreams of becoming a physicist.
If people with disabilities had the opportunity to develop their skills, they could contribute to the workforce, earn an income and support their families, but in Afghanistan, they feel like a burden on their families and suffer from various forms of depression and anxiety, and worry about whether they have enough food to eat.
Empowering Afghans with Disabilities
But what can be done to create more opportunities for Afghans with disabilities, especially women and girls? The mother of a young woman with a physical disability had a message she wanted the international community to convey: “I call on the authorities and the international community not to ignore the challenges facing people with disabilities. Don’t treat them as invisible or without needs or concerns.” Instead, provide employment opportunities based on the skills and capabilities of people with disabilities and recognise their capabilities.
Or, as another disabled Afghan told me, “We don’t want to rely on charity.”
Of course, the Taliban are a major obstacle to this goal and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Similarly, the United States, and the international community more broadly, are still debating how to engage with the Taliban regime going forward. But there are actions that can be taken today to ease the burden borne by Afghans with disabilities. These include:
Humanitarian organizations can prioritize special programs aimed at reaching people with disabilities, with a particular focus on women and girls who face additional constraints due to their disability and the restrictions imposed by the Taliban. Ongoing vocational training and income-generation projects should be carefully designed to address the diverse needs and capabilities of people with disabilities.
As policymakers continue to shape the contours of their relationship with the Taliban regime, it will be crucial that they effectively uphold the fundamental right of persons with disabilities to a dignified living environment and ensure that they receive the support they need to thrive. To do so in their negotiations with the Taliban, policymakers should keep several key points in mind:
The Taliban have been openly vocal about their ability to collect revenue from taxes and duties. The international community should use the Taliban’s confidence in revenue collection to pressure them to provide adequate economic and living conditions for people with disabilities. The Taliban must allocate dedicated funds to improve the economic and living conditions of people with disabilities, regardless of their gender or the cause of their disability. The Taliban have made moves to address past biases regarding non-war-related disabilities, but pressure must be placed on the Taliban to implement these, expand coverage to women, and end preferential treatment for Taliban associates. The Taliban should ensure that women with disabilities have unrestricted access to education and vocational training. This is already a point of contention between the Taliban regime and the international community, but its importance to the future of Afghan women and girls with disabilities will only strengthen policymakers’ resolve on this issue.
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