Women forced to sell assets just to give birth a year after Taliban takeover

Mothers-to-be are forced to sell their belongings in order to give birth a year after the Taliban arrived in Afghanistan and took control of the country.

Since that day, women's lives have changed dramatically and now few places are safe for them.

Since the Taliban takeover, there has been a noticeable absence of women as they fear draconian new laws restricting travel without male relatives, bans on education and have been deprived of earning an income.< /p>

But one area they can work in is maternity hospitals, where behind Taliban-guarded walls are institutions run by women for women.

Although the government has changed, there has been no change in the duties of midwives, but the conditions in which they now operate are not without new challenges.

Medical staff talking at Mailala Maternity Hospital in Kabul (

Picture:

AFP via Getty Images)

Thanks to the substantial aid and personnel provided by international charities, hospitals were able to provide good maternity care at nominal cost, but they were still far from international standards.

But now care is a shadow of its former self, as the Taliban takeover has shattered any hope of continued relations with the international community and the aid that funded the lion's share of the public services in Afghanistan has been stopped.

Millions of dollars in revenue were lost almost overnight, causing price spikes and a liquidity crunch as well as cash shortages.

Afghan...