Fighting between July and December has resulted in over 121,000 people being displaced from the north and and northeast parts of the country. Over 65,000 people left Shomali for the remote Panshir valley to escape factional fighting. Food shortages and high prices, freezing weather and little clothing now threaten them. The conservative Taliban views pose especially difficult problems for women and girls in employment, education and mobility. Afghan women can only work in the health sector, although many work as teachers in home-based schools, often at risk to themselves and their families.
Women also face other hardships.
Pregnancy and childbirth are dangerous. This is among the world's highest. Only 3 per cent of women are immunized with tetanus toxoid to protect their newborn from neo-natal tetanus. Vaccine-preventable diseases account for about 21 per cent of child deaths diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections account for another 42 per cent. Almost 50 per cent of children suffer from chronic malnutrition and 15 per cent from acute malnutrition.