UN: 10.7 Million Afghan Women and Girls Face a Humanitarian Crisis

More than 10.7 million women and girls across Afghanistan are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday, warning that women remain among those hardest hit by the country’s deepening crisis. The figure represents over a quarter of Afghanistan’s total population and underscores the gendered toll of a humanitarian emergency that the UN has described as one of the most severe in the world.

In a statement posted on X on July 14, OCHA said Afghan women and girls continue to face compounding vulnerabilities as deteriorating healthcare, intensifying food insecurity, and sweeping restrictions on education, employment, and freedom of movement converge to create a near-insurmountable barrier to survival and dignity. The agency noted that many families are now forced to make impossible choices such as pulling girls from school to prioritize scarce household resources for boys, or marrying daughters off early in exchange for dowries to stave off starvation.

The agency said Afghanistan’s health system is under mounting strain, with many women facing sharply reduced access to medical care, maternal health services, and female healthcare workers whose presence is often culturally mandatory for women to seek treatment. Maternal mortality rates, already among the highest in Asia, are feared to be rising as clinics close due to funding shortfalls and staff shortages. Humanitarian organizations have also reported worsening nutrition indicators, with acute malnutrition spiking among pregnant and lactating women, as well as declining access to clean water, sanitation, and essential medicines. Female-headed households already disproportionately vulnerable are experiencing extreme hardship, with many left without any source of income amid a collapsed economy and a banking system that severely restricts women’s financial independence.

OCHA warned that restrictions on girls’ secondary and higher education are creating long-term, generational risks for Afghanistan’s healthcare sector by limiting the future pipeline of female doctors, nurses, and midwives. Their presence is not only critical for culturally sensitive care but also for maternal and child survival, as female health workers deliver the vast majority of reproductive health services. The UN has previously projected that Afghanistan could face a shortage of 25,000 teachers and healthcare workers by 2030 a deficit that aid agencies say would have catastrophic consequences for maternal and child health, immunisation campaigns, and emergency obstetric care.

The warning comes as Afghanistan’s humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate against a backdrop of sharply declining international aid, widespread poverty affecting more than 90% of the population, and the return of hundreds of thousands of Afghan migrants from neighboring Iran and Pakistan. These returnees many of whom were deported or pressured to leave are arriving with few resources and placing additional pressure on already overstretched public services, shelter, and food distribution systems in a country still recovering from decades of war and recurrent natural disasters, including devastating earthquakes and floods.

Afghanistan remains one of the world’s largest and most complex humanitarian emergencies. According to the United Nations, nearly half the country’s population approximately 23.7 million people requires some form of humanitarian assistance, with women and girls continuing to face disproportionate barriers to healthcare, education, and livelihoods under Taliban policies. Since August 2021, the Taliban administration has issued more than 70 edicts restricting women’s rights, including bans on university attendance, most forms of employment, and entry to public spaces such as parks and gyms measures that the UN has labelled “gender apartheid.”

Humanitarian organizations continue to urge international donors to sustain and increase funding for Afghanistan, warning that the 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan remains critically underfunded. At the same time, they are calling for the removal of administrative and policy barriers that limit women’s access to aid distribution points, health facilities, and cash assistance programmes. Many agencies have had to scale back operations due to funding gaps, leaving millions without life-saving support. Without increased international commitment and a reversal of restrictive policies, aid workers caution that humanitarian needs are likely to worsen further in the coming years, with long-term consequences for Afghanistan’s social fabric, economic stability, and public health infrastructure that will take decades to reverse.

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