Date: 09/11/1403

Sources from UN aid agencies in Herat Province report that the Taliban have instructed humanitarian organizations not to distribute aid directly to women without a mahram, instead requiring assistance to be delivered through male family members. Aid workers told Amu TV that this directive has severely disrupted operations, particularly affecting female-headed households and women without male guardians. One aid worker said distributions were halted because registering women’s fingerprints was deemed “non-mahram” and “sinful.”

According to multiple sources, the Taliban presented aid agencies with three options: distribute aid only to men; require all female recipients to be accompanied by a mahram; or allocate 50 percent of the aid to the Taliban. As a result, several aid programs have been suspended.

Women in need reported that the suspension has placed families at risk of hunger and starvation. Jamila, a resident of Herat, said women are receiving no food or medical assistance, while another resident, Fawzia, described severe shortages of basic supplies, leaving families without support. According to the United Nations, 22.9 million people in Afghanistan require humanitarian assistance, a crisis worsened by the suspension of U.S. foreign aid.

The Taliban’s restrictions on humanitarian aid distribution in Herat instrumentalize gender norms and mahram requirements to block life-saving assistance to women and female-headed households. By conditioning aid on male intermediaries, fingerprint bans, or diversion of resources to Taliban authorities, the policy converts humanitarian relief into a mechanism of control and extraction. The resulting suspension of aid places women and children at acute risk of hunger and death, demonstrating how gender-based governance directly produces humanitarian harm.