‘CHECKING EVERY PHARMACY’

Taliban Bans Contraception in Afghanistan as a ‘Western Conspiracy’

Pharmacists say they’ve been ordered at gunpoint to stop supplying birth control.

The Taliban is preventing the sale of contraception throughout Afghanistan, according to a report, under the justification that birth control is a Western conspiracy to control the country’s Muslim population. While Kabul’s Health Ministry has not issued a formal ban, pharmacists and midwives have reported being ordered by Taliban members to stop supplying contraceptive medicines and devices. “They came to my store twice with guns and threatened me not to keep contraceptive pills for sale,” one anonymous store owner told The Guardian. “They are regularly checking every pharmacy in Kabul and we have stopped selling the products.” The prohibition of birth control is just the latest attack on women’s rights since the Taliban swept to power in 2021, with women and girls already shut out of access to education.