Food Insecurity Starves Afghans
Amidst Afghanistan’s historically rich cultural tapestry, fertile lands, and agricultural potential lies the pressing issue of food insecurity entrenched by decades of geopolitical strife, environmental challenges, and socioeconomic instability. The consequences of food insecurity ripple through every facet of Afghan society, as more than 15.8 million Afghans suffer from crisis levels of food insecurity according to the World Food Program (WFP). Communities face growing suffering as a whole: “The crowds gathering outside Kabul’s bakeries grow daily. They are hungry and desperate, waiting for some compassion, staring at the fresh bread,” describes PBS. Save the Children interviewed a mother by the name of Zeba who brought her 7-month-old daughter to their clinic. She admits, “...we sleep hungry. Seeing my child getting weak day by day and crying for food is devastating.” Without a doubt, Afghans express the urgent need to alleviate this pervasive hunger crisis.
With 1 in 3 Afghans not knowing where their next meal will come from, it is no surprise that WFP reports Afghans skipping meals, going several days without eating, and turning desperately to more extreme coping mechanisms. Al Jazeera captures the common practice of organ-selling in Herat, seen through a father by the name of Nooruddin selling his kidney so that he could put food on the table for his children. These surgeries necessitate recovery time for having a kidney removed, which unfortunately prevents these primary breadwinners from taking on physical labor in exchange for food and basic needs for several months. Coupled with this desperation, health conditions originate from the severity of inaccessibility to food in a cyclically cruel nature. The New York Post (NYP) explains that hospitals inform many Afghans who have no choice but to sell their kidney that their malnourished state would lead to their death if doctors were to operate on them. Additionally, a 2023 study by BMC Public Health ties decreased energy, fatigue, and increased pain and discomfort with the food insecurity everyday Afghans endure. This study indicates that inadequate food destroys breadwinners’ ability to devote their full effort and energy towards the labor of employment, a labor necessary to afford basic food for themself and their family. When basic food cannot be acquired, it cyclically worsens breadwinners’ physical state, which again, serves as the foundation necessary to continue working to acquire food. Afghans suffer from such a deep level of starvation that these nearly unfathomable extremities consume much of their life.
Afghan children remain as one of the most vulnerable populations to food insecurity. The International Rescue Committeestates that children often have no option but to work in order to collect enough money to purchase food for both themself and their family. The Kalaam Team interviewed several young boys with no choice but to sell what they could on the streets of Kabul. Farhad, an 8-year-old boy, explains that he collects bottles and rummages through garbage in order to make a living. Simultaneously, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) states that food insecurity permanently stunts more than a million Afghan children who suffer from prolonged acute malnutrition. Access to meat, for example, serves as a luxury in Afghanistan. Many families express that they are lucky to eat meat only if given qurbani when Eid Al-Adha arrives. Faisal, an 11-year-old boy interviewed by Kalaam, states that he has not eaten meat in 2 or 3 years. The NYP also captures an extreme circumstance unfathomable to many: Bibizana, a mother of four and caretaker of her elderly father, sold one of her daughters. Bibizana anguished over these desperate measures and exclaimed, “I wish I had not been born into this world. I wish I had never seen these days...I have to endure it.” For individuals who never suffered the threat to life derived from deprivation of basic foods, understanding the true severity of food insecurity that Afghans experience comes hand-in-hand with acknowledging the deeply heartbreaking levels of desperation it proliferates.
Leading Causes of Food Insecurity
The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan exacerbated the already skyrocketing levels of food insecurity. Prior to the takeover, Afghanistan ranked 99th out of 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index. The Congressional Research Servicereveals that all the way up to 2020, 90% of Afghans lived on less than $2 USD a day, making it extremely difficult to meet basic food needs. Brutal environmental factors and the pandemic also intensified these conditions. According to the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), consecutive droughts and floods until 2019 ruined 40% of agricultural output throughout Afghanistan. This decline raised food prices for Afghans already struggling to afford prior costs. To make matters worse, CSIS explains that the Covid-19 pandemic compounded food prices and intensified unemployment, resulting in widespread loss of income. Against this backdrop and Afghans facing the consequences of external powers' war waged in their country for decades, Afghans already suffered from deeply entrenched, widespread, and continuous food insecurity.
Taliban Takeover Worsens Food Insecurity Crisis
After the Taliban takeover, the world abandoned Afghanistan. On August 15, 2021, the HRW stated the World Bank Group, United States government, and other governments around the world officially barred the Central Bank of Afghanistan from interacting with domestic banking systems, the international banking system, and international financial institutions. Furthermore, President Biden signed an Executive Order to freeze $7 billion in Afghanistan’s assets, allocating half to the 9/11 attack’s victims' families despite no correlation between these victims and the assets of Afghan people. As a result, Afghanistan’s economy took simultaneous catastrophic hits: the HRW describes the resulting liquidity crisis and shortage of banknotes; donors severely restricting funding for health, education, and other essential sectors; businesses, humanitarian groups, and private banks facing the depletion of their operational capacities. These economic sanctions placed on Afghanistan prevent a sustainable Afghan economy which consequently increases the costs of importing food dramatically while millions of Afghans experience severe loss in income. World Bank data shows that staples such as rice and wheat in addition to agricultural inputs such as fertilizer and fuel nearly doubled in price after the takeover. So while Afghans’ incomes substantially declined, they must simultaneously face basic food necessities growing further and further away from their purchasing ability. BMC Public Health also cements the Taliban takeover as a devastating point of downfall in accessibility to food, revealing a 40% increase in food insecurity among Afghan families, resulting in a total of 98% of Afghan households being food insecure. The Taliban takeover alarmingly intensified the already dire hunger crisis and the United States alongside other international forces disabled Afghans from receiving both external and internal support, punishing Afghan civilians for crimes they did not commit.
Pakistan & Iran’s Mass Forced Deportations Destroy Accessibility to Food
As the number of countries unwilling to welcome Afghan refugees grow, neighboring countries such as Iran and Pakistan forcefully deporting Afghans at an alarming rate after the Taliban takeover also devastatingly contributes to the Afghan hunger crisis. Iran and Pakistan forcefully deported and displaced a combined total of approximately 850,000 Afghans to a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan by the end of 2023 according to Voice of America. CSIS evaluates that this displacement intensely contributes to the rising levels of food insecurity in Afghanistan, as Iran and Pakistan stripped these individuals from any connection to their livelihoods, agricultural land, family, and community support. USAID confirms that the presence of these displaced Afghans increases strain on local markets and food availability. Unfortunately, forced displacement of Afghans will only escalate: Amnesty International states that Pakistan recently began their ‘Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan to forcefully remove another 800,000 Afghan citizens of Pakistan and later plans to implement the internationally unlawful deportation of 1.3 million Afghans issued UNHCR Proof of Registration cards. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs explains that such an influx of displaced Afghans surge unemployment rates, diminishing casual labor opportunities for Afghan households and resultantly, depleting purchasing power for food. Therefore, Pakistan and Iran’s brutality in forcefully deporting Afghans not only harms access to food for the displaced populations, but also indirectly affects Afghanistan as a whole, exacerbating the downturn spiral of food insecurity.
How to Help Food Insecurity in Afghanistan
The Taliban takeover depleted any existing channels for international and domestic aid for Afghans in immense need. The HRW states that the UN requested $3 billion in funds for Afghans suffering from the hunger crisis, but received less than 3% of requested amount. The withholding of funds from internationally recognized human rights sources serves as one of the largest betrayals to the Afghan people. At the same time, Al Jazeera shows that previous international donors no longer feel comfortable providing aid to Afghanistan under sanctions and Taliban rule. Because of Afghanistan’s widespread sociopolitical and economic instability, Afghans are left helpless without the aid of external powers. To make matters worse, USAID reveals that the existing hunger crisis will only intensify due to the continuation of displacement, weak labor markets, limited livelihood opportunities, and below average household purchasing power. Abandoned by the world, stuck in cruel, downward-spiraling cycles of deprivation, Afghans remain starving and walk the rope closer to the collapse of their life every day.
Individuals who would like to support Afghan families in dire need have the opportunity to do so through Kalaam Project’s Qurbani on Eid Al Adha, where meat will be distributed to families in Kabul who have not eaten meat in months to years. For continuous avenues of support, donate to Kalaam’s Sponsor a Family program, where the Kalaam Team in Afghanistan provides families with emergency aid to fulfill their basic needs. Amongst many needs, donations will be consistently used to provide food for Afghan families, especially as temperature drops and the harsh winters of Afghanistan get closer. Access to food is a fundamental human right actively denied to Afghans. The Kalaam Team urges recognition for the growing emergency hunger crisis that Afghans endure and encourages concerned individuals to donate to families directly affected by food insecurity.
Learn more about the Kalaam Project’s work in Afghanistan and make a contribution to Qurbani on Eid Al Adha or Sponsor a Family in Afghanistan.
