Taliban's New “Virtue Law” Exacerbated Afghan Women's Mental Health Problems, Says UN

The UN refugee agency reported that the Taliban's law for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice has increased psychological pressure on Afghan women.

The organisation said that following the restrictions imposed by this law, many Afghan women feel frustrated, depressed and angry.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Thursday, October 10, released a report on the occasion of World Mental Health Day, quoting a psychiatric counsellor, as stating that mental illness among Afghan women has increased by 40 to 50 percent in the past year.

Farzana, a mental health advisor for the UN refugee agency, said that factors including increasing restrictions on women and girls, high rates of domestic violence and an overall deterioration in the economic situation have contributed to the increase in mental illness among Afghan women.

The UN Refugee Agency notes that psychological distress affects more than half of Afghanistan's population. According to the organisation, one in five people in Afghanistan suffers from severe mental health problems.

The organisation also announced the provision of psychological counselling services to more than 35,000 Afghans this year, saying that the need for psychosocial services, especially for women, is still much higher than the available services.

The report of the United Nations Refugee Agency on the occasion of World Mental Health Day states that the forced deportation of Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan has also had an impact on the increase in stress and mental illness among Afghans.

Earlier, officials of the mental health department of Herat Regional Hospital reported a worrying increase in the number of women suffering from mental illnesses in May this year. According to health officials, at least 80 percent of the patients referred to the Herat Psychiatric Hospital are women and girls.

This comes as the Taliban have increasingly increased restrictions on Afghan women. The Taliban's law for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which was signed by the group's leader in recent months, considers women's voices to be "illegal" and prohibits their presence in society.