BBC Afghan Service in Kabul,
BBCThe Afghan is high, Kabul, at the top of a steel gate on a hill to the west of the capital, at the top of a steel gate, one place talks about some locals, and even travels less.
The women’s wing of a mental health center run by the Afghan Red Crisant Society (ARCS) is the largest of only one handful of features in the country that is dedicated to helping women with mental illnesses.
Local people call it black, or fort.
The BBC achieved special access to the crowded center, where employees currently find it difficult to cope with 104 women within its walls.
Among them are women like Maryam* who say that she is a victim of domestic violence.
It is believed in the mid -20s, she has been here for nine years, which she describes as abuse and neglect by her family, after the period of being homeless.
“My brother whenever I visited the neighbor’s house, my brother used to beat me,” she alleges. Her family did not want to let her out of the house alone, she says, because of a cultural belief that young girls should not leave the house without supervision.
Eventually, his brothers thrown him out, forcing him to stay on the streets at a young age. It was found by a woman here and, apparently worried about her mental health, brought her to the center.
Despite her story, Maryam’s smile is constantly bright. She often sees singing, and is one of the few patients that allow to work around the building, working voluntarily to help cleaning.
He is ready – and ready – being discharged.
But she cannot leave because she does not have to go anywhere.
Maryam says, “I don’t expect to return to my father and mother. I want to marry someone here in Kabul, because even if I go back home, they will leave me again.”
As she cannot return to her derogatory family, she is effectively trapped in convenience.
In Afghanistan, strict Taliban rules and deep -hearted patriarchal traditions make it almost impossible to live independently for women. Women require a male guardian to legally and socially travel, work, or even reach many services, and most economic opportunities are closed for them.
Gender inequality, limited education, and restricted employment generations have left many women economically dependent on male breadwiners, strengthening a cycle where survival often hosts on male relatives.
One of the dormitory has Habiba sitting on a bed.
The 28 -year -old says she was brought to the center by her husband, who was taking her out of the family’s house after marrying again.
Like Maryam, he is nowhere to go anywhere else. He is also ready to be released, but her husband will not take her back, and her widow mother either cannot support her.
His three sons now live with an uncle. He initially met him, but Habiba did not see him this year; Without access to the phone, she cannot even contact.
“I want to join my children again,” she says.
Their stories are unique at the center, where our visit, including interactions with employees and patients, is maintained by Taliban government officials.
Some patients are here for 35 to 40 years, a psychiatrist of the center, Selima Haleeb.
“Some have been completely left by their families. Nobody comes to travel, and they die while staying here.”
The years of conflict have made a mark on many Afghans, especially the mental health of women, and the issue is often poorly understood and subjected to stigma.
In response to a recent United Nations report on the deteriorating situation of women’s rights in Afghanistan, Taliban Government Deputy Spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat told the BBC that his government has not allowed any violence against women and “he has ensured women’s rights in Afghanistan”.
But the UN data released in 2024 marks for a deteriorating mental health crisis associated with the Taliban rift on women’s rights: 68% of the surveyed women reported “bad” or “very poor” mental health.
Services are struggling to cope with both inside and outside the center, which has seen many times the increase in patients in the last four years, and now there is a waiting list.
“Mental illness, especially depression, is very common in our society,” Dr., a senior psychiatrist of Kabul, Dr. Abdul Wali Utmazai says, which are also run by Arcs.
She says she sees 50 outpatients a day from different provinces, most of them: “They face serious economic pressure. Many have no men to provide for them – 80% of my patients are young women with family issues.”
The Taliban government says it is committed to providing health services. But a male cannot seek many help, with a ban on women’s movement without chaperan.
All this makes it more difficult for women like Maryam and Habiba – and the less they live for as long as they live there, they say they need strict help.
A family had been trying for a year to accept his 16 -year -old daughter, Zainab at the center, but was reported that no beds were available. He is now one of the youngest patients there.
By then she was limited to her home – her ankles shocked to stop her from running away.
It is not clear what Zainab is experiencing, but she struggles to orally her thoughts.
Mohammed, a blind distressed Peda, says the police recently found their daughter miles from home.
Zainab had gone missing for days, which is particularly dangerous in Afghanistan, where women are not allowed to travel long distances from home without male guardian.
Feda Mohammed explains, “He climbs the walls and runs away if we open it,” Feda Mohammed.
Zainab breaks every now and then in tears, especially when she sees her mother crying.
Feda Mohammed says that he saw his condition at the age of eight. But in April 2022, several bombings hit her school.
“He was thrown against a wall from the explosion,” he says. “We helped the injured take out and collect the bodies. It was frightening.”
If the space was not found, it would not have been clear what exactly happened. Zainab’s father said that his repeated efforts to escape were dishonesty him, and he argued that it was better for him and his family that he was limited to the center.
Whether she – like Maryam and Habiba – will now become one of the abandoned women of Kala.
*The names of patients and their families have been completed
