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.”

removed by mod

Sorry to offend you with my writing style. I’m not proofreading myself and am not encouraged to do so by your framing which is pretty needlessly disrespectful. I mentioned I did read about what was happening in Afghanistan otherwise I wouldn’t know about it. I did know about these events from alternative publications such as Al Jazeera or TYT at the time or else I wouldn’t now be advocating for us not to do exactly that again. What I am saying is that these stories were absent enough in mainstream publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, etc. that I recall the Afghanistan occupation flying under the radar for almost the entire time we occupied their country other than when we killed someone or if designated enemies did something particularly bad. I am seeing far more mainstream news stories about social problems in Afghanistan since the withdrawal than I have seen in those publications for decades which causes me to suspect the idea of continuing to mess with Afghanistan under any pretense is still an issue.

Hopefully you are able to address what it is that’s really bothering you. I’m finished.

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