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.”

  •  liv   ( @liv@beehaw.org ) English
    5•10 months ago

    I understand the concern you feel - and I agree that public support for invasive interventions can be inflamed (or in some cases, downright manufactured) by news media.

    I think you’re right to be wary of encouraging support, and we in the west as a whole should resist buying into or perpetuating those kinds of discourses.

    In this case, I don’t think that’s what this article, or the partner journalists, or the underlying study, are intending, though. This is a “world news” section so by its very nature it is mostly about things outside our remit. (I acknowledge that this is easier for me to say as someone in a small nation that did not join the coalition to invade Afghanistan. If I were in a country with huge global political power it would probably feel a bit glib to just say “we” are not in charge).