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BBC Afghan Service, in Kabul
Tall on the hill on the west of the Afghan capital, Kabul, behind the steel gate, topped with barbed wire, lies a place that is talking about several locals and even less visits.
The women’s wing of the mental health center, which is managed by the Afghan Red Crescent (arc), is the largest means in the country, dedicated to the help of women with mental illness.
The locals call it a stool or a fortress.
The BBC has received exclusive access to a crowded center, where it is difficult for employees to handle 104 women who are now on its walls.
Among them are women such as Mariam*who says she is a victim of domestic violence.
It is believed that in the mid-20’s it was nine years old, after transferring what it describes as abuse and neglect of your family, after which the homeless period.
“My brothers beat me up every time I visited a neighbor’s house,” she claims. Her family did not want to let her out of the house alone, she says, because of the cultural faith that young girls should not leave the house unattended.
In the end, her brothers seemed to kick her, forcing her to live on the streets at a young age. It was here that the woman found her and obviously concerned her mental health, led her to the center.
Despite her story, Mariam’s smile was constantly changed. Often it is seen as singing, and is one of the few patients to get around the building voluntarily to help clean.
It is ready – and ready – to subscribe.
But she cannot leave because she has nowhere to go.
“I don’t expect to come back to my father and mother. I want to marry someone here in Kabul because even when I get home, they just give up again,” Mariam says.
Because it cannot return to her violent family, she effectively hit the object.
In Afghanistan, the strict rules of the Taliban and deeply rooted patriarchal traditions make women almost impossible to live independently. Women legally and socially demand to have a man for travel, work or even access to many services, and most economic opportunities are closed.
Generations of gender inequality, limited education and limited employment have left many women who are financially dependent on men’s breadwinners, enhancing a cycle where survival often depends on men’s relatives.
He was sitting on a bed in one of the hostels – Habiba.
The 28-year-old girl says her husband brought to the center, who made her leave the family after he married again.
Like Mariam, she has nowhere else to go. She is also ready for release, but her husband will not return her back, and her widowed mother also cannot support her.
Now her three sons live with his uncle. They visited her initially, but Habiba did not see them this year; Without access to the phone, it can’t even contact.
“I want to reunite with my children,” she says.
Their stories are far from unique in the center where our visit, including conversations with employees and patients, is controlled by officials of the Taliban government.
Some patients have been here from 35 to 40 years old, says Salem Halb, a psychotherapist in the center.
“Some were completely abandoned by their families. No one comes to visit, and they eventually live and die here.”
The years of the conflict have left their mark on the mental health of many Afghans, especially women, and this issue is often poorly understood and undergoing stigma.
In response to a recent UN report on the deterioration of women’s rights in Afghanistan, the Taliban’s deputy press -secretary, the BBC said that their government did not allow women to be violent, and they “provided” the rights of women in Afghanistan. “
But the UN data, published in 2024, indicate the deterioration of the mental health crisis associated with the repression of the women’s rights: 68% of women surveyed reported “bad” or “very poor” mental health.
Services are struggling, both in the center and outside, in which there has been an increase several times in patients over the past four years, and now has a waiting list.
“The mental illness, especially depression, is very common in our society,” says D -R -Abdul Vali Utmansi, a senior psychiatrist in a nearby hospital in Kabul, also managed by ARCS.
He says he sees up to 50 dispensaries a day from different provinces, most of whom are women: “They face serious economic pressure. Many do not have men relative to them – 80% of my patients – young women with family problems.”
The Taliban government says he seeks to provide medical services. But many can not seek help with the restrictions on the movement of women without male Shaperon.
All this makes it difficult as women, such as Mariam and Habiba – and the longer they remain, the less places for those who say they need help.
One family tried to recognize their 16-year-old daughter Zinab a year, but they were told that there was no beds. Now she is one of the youngest patients.
By then, it was timed to her home – her ankles threw it away to prevent her from running away.
It is unclear what problems with mental health feel the Zinab, but it is struggling to verbalize their thoughts.
Noticeably upset Fed Mohammad says the police recently found a daughter miles from home.
Zinab disappeared all day long, which is especially dangerous in Afghanistan, where women are not allowed to travel from home without a man.
“It rises on the walls and runs away when we cancel it,” Fed Mohammad explains.
Zinab once -after time it breaks into tears, especially when it sees the mother crying.
Fed Mohammad says she noticed her condition when she was eight. But this worsened after many explosions hit her school in April 2022.
“She was thrown to the wall,” he says. “We helped to carry out the wounded and gather bodies. It was awful.”
It is unclear what it would be if the space was not found. Zinab’s father said her repeated attempts to escape, and he claimed that she and her family were better for her, that she was timed to the center.
Let her – like Mariam and Habiba – will now become one of the abandoned women’s stakes.
*Patient names and their families have been changed throughout