"Afganistán: El impacto devastador de las leyes talibanes en la salud mental de las mujeres afganas: ‘Lloro en mi esterilla de oración, sufro insultos a diario de la policía moral’ | Internacional | EL PAÍS English"

Noor, de 25 años, es graduada en Derecho por la Universidad de Herat, en el oeste de Afganistán. Una vez anheló trabajar en la Oficina del Fiscal General de Afganistán. Sin embargo, en la actualidad toma medicamentos para combatir la depresión y la presión de su familia para casarse. “Mi familia me dice que, dado que no hay trabajo ni universidad, lo mejor es que me case. No tengo esperanza”, expresa, rompiendo en llanto. “Recibo un golpe de mi familia y otro del Talibán.”

After suffering repeated bouts of depression, Noor sought help at the Herat hospital’s mental health ward. “I told the psychiatrist I didn’t feel well,” she says. The solution, he said, was to accept the situation. He then handed her and box of Clonazepam, a sedative pill that keeps her asleep most of the time. “Negative and suicidal thoughts increased in my head after using the medication,” Noor says, so she threw them away. “The Taliban just want to get rid of me sooner.”

The sedatives provide only temporary relief, without addressing the deeper emotional turmoil caused by the loss of education and work opportunities and the reality of staying at home with no hope for a better future. Noor’s depression was exacerbated by her sister Sofia’s attempted suicide two months ago. Sofia’s employer had accused her of violating the Taliban’s dress code and the morality police threatened her to imprison her, Noor says. “The doctors pumped her stomach that day, but she still has negative thoughts.”