Afghanistan is experiencing one of the most severe maternal health disasters in modern history, with the United Nation warning that hundreds of mothers are dying annually due to lack of medical care. The World Health Organization has announced that maternal mortality in Afghanistan has reached 521 deaths per 100,000 live births, while the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates the rate at 600 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. This represents one of the highest maternal mortality rates globally, with UNFPA reporting 638 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2024. This Analysis reveals that the crisis is accelerating rather than stabilizing, as UN reports warn that maternal deaths in Afghanistan could increase by 50% due to growing restrictions on women and girls.
The human cost is staggering: currently, one mother dies every hour from preventable complications in Afghanistan. This contrasts sharply with previous estimates from 2023, when official statements indicated that one woman dies every two hours. The accelerating death toll reflects the compounding impact of institutional barriers, funding crises, and systematic restrictions on women’s access to healthcare services throughout the country.
Taliban Policies Creating Life-Threatening Barriers for Pregnant Women
The Taliban’s institutionalized system of gender discrimination has created life-threatening obstacles for Afghan women seeking medical care during pregnancy and childbirth. Restrictions imposed by the Taliban are jeopardising the lives of women and their children who are sometimes denied emergency treatment, according to comprehensive documentation of the healthcare crisis. Under current Taliban regulations, sick or injured women must adhere to strict dress codes, be accompanied by a male guardian, and receive treatment exclusively from male medical personnel, creating impossible barriers for women in labor.
The consequences of these policies are immediately visible in emergency rooms and hospital corridors across Afghanistan. Without a male guardian, women often find themselves denied ambulance services, leaving them to traverse dangerous terrain alone while in active labor or experiencing severe pregnancy complications. Documented cases reveal the devastating reality: a woman was forced to give birth at the entrance of a hospital due to being unaccompanied, while another mother tragically lost her four-year-old son, as she was unable to transport him to a hospital by herself. These are not isolated incidents but routine occurrences in the Taliban’s Afghanistan.
The Taliban’s restrictions must be reversed; otherwise, they will be killing people, warns UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett, whose report based on 137 interviews across 29 provinces documents the systematic nature of these violations. The testimony from Afghan women reveals that this policy is entirely unjustifiable and that it jeopardizes the entire healthcare system, creating conditions where unnecessary suffering, illness, and death become inevitable outcomes rather than preventable tragedies.
Ban on Women’s Medical Education Threatens Future of Healthcare System
In December 2024, the Taliban closed all medical institutes for women, blocking the remaining path for Afghan women to pursue higher education in healthcare and creating a catastrophic pipeline problem for the future of medical care. The UN human rights office, OHCHR, has condemned a new ban imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan preventing women and girls from attending private medical institutions, warning that it will have devastating consequences for healthcare – especially the future availability of midwives and nurses. This decision represents a fundamental attack on the healthcare infrastructure itself.
Currently, approximately 25% of Afghanistan’s healthcare workforce consists of women, yet the ban on women’s medical education has resulted in fewer future female healthcare providers, which will impact the availability of treatment for female patients in accordance with gender segregation policies. UNICEF warns Afghanistan could lose up to 25,000 female health workers and teachers, leaving millions of women and children without access to care when they need it most. The shortage is already critical: Afghanistan has only 2.5 healthcare workers per 10,000 people according to 2020 data.
Unfortunately, we anticipate higher mortality rates for both mothers and infants in the coming years due to the systematic restrictions on the healthcare workforce, cautions Dr. Aya Dal, Afghan Health Minister in exile, reflecting the consensus among medical professionals familiar with Afghanistan’s situation. UN experts have gone further, warning that the Taliban ban on women’s medical education could amount to femicide given its predictable deadly consequences for pregnant women and mothers. The ban will prevent a new generation of nurses and midwives from receiving training, creating a catastrophic shortage when combined with existing constraints on female healthcare workers.
Funding Shortages Accelerating Healthcare System Collapse
The Taliban’s restrictions compound an already dire funding crisis that threatens to completely collapse Afghanistan’s healthcare infrastructure. The World Health Organization in Afghanistan is deeply concerned that funding shortages could force the closure of 80% of WHO-supported essential health care services, endangering millions including vulnerable populations such as women, children, the elderly, and the displaced. As of March 4, 2025, 167 healthcare facilities had shut down due to funding shortages, cutting off lifesaving medical care to 1.6 million people across 25 out of 34 provinces.
These closures are not just numbers on a report, they represent mothers unable to give birth safely, children missing lifesaving vaccinations, entire communities left without protection from deadly disease outbreaks, emphasizes WHO Representative Dr. Edwin Ceniza Salvador, emphasizing the human cost of funding failures. The warning is stark: the consequences will be measured in lives lost as more facilities close and more people lose access to basic medical care. More than one-third of health centers in northern, western, and northeastern Afghanistan have shut down, disproportionately affecting remote communities where maternal mortality is already highest.
The scale of humanitarian need is overwhelming. In 2026, an estimated 21.9 million people—nearly half of Afghanistan’s population—need humanitarian assistance. Of those, 17.5 million people—more than three-quarters women and children—are prioritized for support. Among them, 11.6 million children face malnutrition, disease, and protection risks while their mothers struggle to access prenatal and delivery care. The United Nation requires $1.7 billion for humanitarian assistance, yet funding remains catastrophically insufficient to meet the scale of need.
Leading Causes of Maternal Death and Systemic Factors
Maternal deaths in Afghanistan stem from preventable complications that would be manageable with adequate medical care. In Afghanistan, 521 mothers die in each 100,000 live births from preventable complications such as haemorrhage, hypertension, sepsis and obstructed labour, according to WHO’s May 2026 report. Among females aged 12–49 years, obstetric hemorrhage accounts for 23% of deaths, infection for 24%, and abortion complications for 19%. These are not mysterious diseases but manageable conditions that become fatal when medical care is inaccessible.
Multiple compounding factors drive these deaths throughout Afghanistan’s healthcare system. Geographic barriers prevent access: in remote villages, lack of roads and clinics means manageable complications become life-threatening emergencies. Poverty is a determining factor: 55% of households couldn’t get healthcare when needed, with 60% citing no money to pay for essential services. Early marriage exacerbates risks: girls married young face deadly pregnancy complications including bleeding, infections, pre-eclampsia, and obstructed labor due to physically immature bodies.
The statistic that Afghanistan records one of the highest rates of maternal mortality globally, with an estimated 600 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births reflects not just medical failure but systemic policy failure. Access to skilled medical personnel and the involvement of female healthcare workers are vital in reducing deaths among mothers and newborns, yet both are systematically restricted by Taliban policies. Restrictions on women’s participation in the healthcare sector have significantly reduced access to essential and life-saving medical services for many families, creating a vicious cycle where fewer women can work as doctors, fewer women can access care, and more women die.
The Path Forward Demands Immediate International Action
The United Nation has made clear what must change to prevent further maternal deaths. The Taliban’s restrictions must be reversed; otherwise, they will be killing people, and this includes lifting the ban on medical education and training for women, removing restrictions on women’s movement, ensuring access to quality healthcare, and restoring women’s right to work in all sectors. Without urgent and sustained support, millions of Afghans will be left without essential care, with women, girls and gender-diverse persons disproportionately bearing the consequences, warns the comprehensive analysis of the crisis.
Greater international responsibility and action are required to address this humanitarian catastrophe, according to UN Special Rapporteur Bennett. Donors must fully fund humanitarian programs, support NGOs and women-led civil society, and expand education and training opportunities in health-related fields to rebuild the healthcare system. UN member states must avoid normalizing or legitimizing the Taliban unless there are verified improvements in human rights, particularly for women and girls, as the international community weighs its response.
This Analysis concludes that without female doctors, midwives, and nurses, the death toll will continue rising inexorably. Afghanistan’s maternal mortality rate is three times higher than the global average, and the trajectory points toward even higher death rates as the healthcare workforce shrinks and funding disappears. The warning is clear: hundreds of Afghan mothers die due to lack of medical care, and without reversing Taliban restrictions and restoring funding, hundreds more will join them in the coming months and years.
