A few days ago, a terrible earthquake rocked Afghanistan. It measured 6.3 on the Richter scale, which did a tremendous amount of damage in a country already devastated by war.

Since the country is now run by the Taliban, rescue efforts were almost non existent, with the fundamentalist organization showing up to the effected areas hours after the quake.

“For two to three hours after the earthquake, there was no information or accurate news,” said Rashid Azimi, a local aid coordinator not connected to the Taliban government, adding that it was the local residents themselves who cried for help when no one else was available to support rescue efforts.

The quake happened during the afternoon, when the men were off tending to their daily chores. This meant that the majority of victims were almost exclusively women and children, who are forced to stay inside the home and away from the prying eyes of others. To make matters worse, when people attempted to help those trapped under the rubble, they were greeted by armed Taliban soldiers that forbade them from helping, since strange men are not allowed to touch any women:

According to Maryam, it was not difficult for the local people to save the women, but some armed Taliban were there who were not allowing them to go near the women…the Taliban did not allow women to visit these areas for the first two or three days of the earthquake so that men and women could not gather there.

So to recap, the corrupt and pathetic Afghani theocratic government was not only terribly slow to react to a disaster, they also actively prevented women and children from being saved, and they hurriedly buried the bodies without ceremony so that the whole incident could be quickly forgotten.

The reaction from Western governments has been mixed. While there are attempts to help the victims, it’s believed that any aid sent to the country would most likely be appropriated by the Taliban, and its doubtful that any would make their way to those in need. The country is already under heavy sanctions, which has aggravated the situation. The truth is that very little can be done, so long as religious tyrants continue to exert their theocratic control. I don’t foresee this changing anytime soon.