Overview

• The World Health Organization asked Taliban authorities to remove restrictions that bar or limit Afghan women from aid work and travel without a male guardian, citing urgent needs after a magnitude 6 quake in the east.
• WHO reported that roughly 90% of medical staff in hard‑hit areas are men and said the shortage of female doctors, nurses and midwives is impeding care for women who are unwilling or unable to see male providers.
• Survivors and volunteers described male rescuers refusing to touch women because of rules against contact with unrelated men, with some bodies reportedly dragged by clothing and injured women set aside without treatment.
• A volunteer in Kunar province said all‑male teams hesitated to pull women from rubble, leaving them to wait for women from other villages to dig them out, while the Taliban has not released a gender breakdown of casualties.
• Afghanistan’s government says the quake killed more than 2,200 people and injured nearly 3,600, as UN Women warned women and girls will bear the brunt and WHO noted dozens of health facilities were already shut by funding cuts and quake damage.