The Expansion of Food Insecurity in Afghanistan Under Taliban Rule: We Have No Strength to Walk from Hunger

Anar, a 70-year-old widow, left her home in Ghormach district of Badghis province seven years ago due to war and insecurity and took refuge in Herat. She says hunger and lack of access to adequate food have taken away her ability to walk.

This elderly woman, who spends her days and nights alone in a small mud house covered with wooden beams, says with a tearful voice that she is always waiting in hope that her neighbors — all of whom are internally displaced — will help her with a piece of bread.

"I have no one. I swear to God, some nights I don’t even have a piece of bread to eat and I go to sleep hungry. Sometimes people and our neighbors, who are also poor, bring me a piece of dry bread. Look, I’ve kept these dry, moldy breads out of fear of going hungry. I soak them in a glass of water to soften them and eat them again."

As Anar shows her dry and moldy pieces of bread, she says that some time ago, her only 15-year-old son went to Iran through illegal routes, but he died after falling from a high-rise building while working as a laborer.

She complains about the unfair distribution of humanitarian aid by the Taliban and says this group distributes aid to their relatives and associates.

Bibi Sanam, a 68-year-old unaccompanied woman, sits under the sunlight, threading colorful beads together with a needle and thread in her hand, trying to earn enough to buy even a single piece of dry bread. She says that although her eyesight is weak and she is advanced in age, she is forced to work.

Sanam also says she is too weak from hunger to walk. She calls on the Taliban and aid organizations to provide food assistance to unaccompanied women.

"I swear to God, I can’t walk — I’m too hungry. I work from morning till night just to earn ten or twenty Afghanis so I can buy one piece of dry bread at night. Our request is that the government help us."

This widowed woman, whose face reflects deep despair, says that not only does she lack access to food, but she is also ill. However, health centers under Taliban control do not provide services to her or others like her.

Sanam, complaining about inhumane treatment at one of the health centers, says:
"I used to always go to the nearby clinic when I got sick, but now they say this clinic used to belong to the Americans and we used to give you medicine, but now we can’t help you anymore."

Ghuncha Gul, another widowed woman who threads beads alongside Sanam, has not been spared from economic hardship and poverty. Like other unaccompanied and widowed women, she speaks of the pain of hunger.

"What can I say? I have no son and no daughter to work for me. I live alone. I went to my neighbor’s house to borrow some oil. I live in someone else’s house, and if the neighbors give me a piece of bread, that’s good. If not, I go hungry."

It is worth noting that after the Taliban came to power in August 2021, work, education, and schooling for women and girls were banned in the country. Many women who were the breadwinners of their families have been forced to either beg for food or resort to sex work to survive.