On the occasion of International Rural Women’s Day, millions of women in Afghanistan’s remote villages continue to live under conditions marked by poverty, deprivation, and severe gender-based restrictions that shape their daily lives.
In Takhar province, women spend long hours from dawn to dusk working in fields, tending livestock, and sustaining their families, yet they earn no income and have no ownership over the resources they manage. Maryam, a local woman, says: “We cultivate the land, care for animals, fetch water, but we have no money, no school, no doctor.”
Access to healthcare is extremely limited. Reaching the nearest clinic often requires several hours of walking, and female doctors are scarce in most villages. Serious health emergencies, including heavy bleeding or acute illnesses, put women’s lives at risk. Maryam adds: “When we bleed or fall sick, there is no one to help. Sometimes women die on the way.”
Education for girls is similarly restricted. Farah (a pseudonym) from Parwan province explains that since the Taliban’s return, no girls’ schools have reopened and families generally do not allow girls to leave home. She says: “Our world has become small; only home and land exist.”
Rural women form the backbone of Afghanistan’s agricultural economy—they cultivate land, tend livestock, cook, and care for children—but they are excluded from income and decision-making. Another woman from Takhar, Humira, says: “We keep cows and goats, milk them, make yogurt and cheese, bake bread, care for children every day—but no one values our work.”
Since the Taliban’s takeover, most educational, healthcare, and economic programs in rural areas have been suspended. The withdrawal of international organizations and the absence of development policies have left rural women increasingly isolated and vulnerable.
International Rural Women’s Day, observed on October 15 (23 Mizan), was established to celebrate women’s vital contributions to food security, development, and environmental sustainability. In Afghanistan, however, the day serves as a stark reminder of systematic exclusion and global silence in the face of women’s suffering.
While the world speaks of empowering rural women, Afghan women continue to fight for survival—silently but persistently—in every seed they sow, every loaf of bread they bake, and every step they take to distant clinics. Global action beyond symbolic messages is urgently needed to support Afghanistan’s rural women, who sustain their communities despite being unheard and overlooked.
