Progress on family planning in Afghanistan is still possible | Letter

2026-02-16 - 17:05

George Papachristou and Gigih Yudhistira offer some hope in response to a report on how the Taliban’s ban on birth control is affecting Afghan women The suffering described in your article (Taliban birth control ban: women ‘broken’ by lethal pregnancies and untreated miscarriages, 29 January) is real and deeply concerning. Afghan women face severe constraints on mobility, decision-making and access to healthcare, particularly in rural and remote areas where services and trained providers are scarce. But it is also important to recognise that the picture is not uniformly bleak. Despite the restrictions, DKT Afghanistan, a locally registered private-sector pharmaceutical organisation, has been able to sustain and even expand access to family planning and maternal health services by working within cultural and religious norms. In Afghanistan, family planning is often delivered as “birth spacing”, an approach that aligns with community expectations and Islamic principles. Continue reading...