Red Cross and other aid workers in Afghanistan say the loss of these facilities has seriously endangered the women's health. Ailments ranging from scabies to vaginal and uterine infections have been on the rise ever since. These, in addition to severe depression and more serious mental illness, would be more than enough to keep medical caregivers booked to capacity. They would, except that women are no longer allowed to receive non-emergency care in the capital city's working hospitals. Instead, they are shunted to the Central Polyclinic, the women's hospital where conditions are less than deplorable.
Most rooms have no electricity.
There is no running water, no lab, no x-ray or operating equipment and instruments. Other hospitals, which were supposed to be allowed to offer emergency care, are being intimidated into turning away even those women who will die without care. Another woman died from intestinal complications because she did not have a burqa and so could not go out to seek help. A pregnant woman, on the way to her regular checkup, was overcome by a need for fresh air. She ducked into a little-travelled alleyway and raised her veil for a moment to catch her breath, but a Taliban soldier saw and immediately began beating her.