Unofficial figures point to a mental health crisis amid severe restrictions on Afghan women’s lives

First, her dreams of becoming a doctor were dashed by the Taliban’s ban on education. Then her family set up a forced marriage to her cousin, a heroin addict. Latifa* felt her future had been snatched away.

“I had two options: to marry an addict and live a life of misery or take my own life,” said the 18-year-old in a phone interview from her home in central Ghor province. “I chose the latter.”

  • balderdash
    1•10 months ago

    Overall, females made up more than three-quarters of recorded suicide deaths and treated survivors.

    Of how much overall? It’s hard to judge the problem without knowing the numbers. This article isn’t helpful

    • livEnglish
      25•10 months ago

      I found another article that gives a few numbers.

      One mental health worker in the western province of Herat who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals said the Taliban had barred health professionals from publishing or sharing statistics on suicide, which had previously been published regularly.

      Herat had the most reported suicide attempts of the provinces for which data was obtained: 123, including 106 by women. There were 18 reported deaths, 15 of them women

      • balderdash
        2•10 months ago

        Thank you. I would think Lemmy of all places would encourage critical thinking instead of just going along with a news headline.

    • ginerel
      24•10 months ago

      two thirds are still two thirds - whether that’s 3 people out of 4 or 750.000 out of 1.000.000. And given that

      A survey published in the journal BMC Psychiatry two months before the Taliban takeover found nearly half the population suffered from psychological distress.

      I think the numbers are really worrying.

      • @Damage@feddit.it
        14•10 months ago

        Especially if you consider that in the rest of the world the majority of successful suicides are from males. It takes a lot of disparity to bring it to those numbers.

      • balderdash
        1•10 months ago

        Not to be callus, but if 3 people commit suicide it isn’t news. Or at least, its not international news.

        • bermudaEnglish
          14•10 months ago

          Dude, they’re saying it’s worrying if 3 out of every 4 people who commit suicide are women

          • balderdash
            1•10 months ago

            Without the total number, it could literally be 3 people for all I know. Not that I don’t feel for the women in this situation.

            In another reply someone quoted a better article that said ~100 suicide attempts. That’s all I was asking for

    • @Falcuz@lemm.ee
      13•10 months ago

      I agree that absolute numbers would be very helpful, but stating and sharing trends can definitely be helpful. Not being able to verify them is a problem though.

      Taliban authorities have not published data on suicides and have barred health workers from sharing up-to-date statistics in multiple provinces, medics say. Health workers agreed to privately share figures for the year from August 2021 to August 2022 to highlight an urgent public health crisis. The data suggests Afghanistan has become one of very few countries worldwide where more women than men die by suicide.