By Isolde Doubell
28/11/2024
Four decades of violent conflict, natural disasters, and economic collapse have had a devastating effect on Afghanistan, a country in Central Asia, landlocked between six other nations, most notably Iran and Pakistan. Afghanistan is considered one of the least developed and poorest countries in the world. The country’s 43 million people are 99.8% Muslim, with 90% Sunni and 10% Shia. According to the Joshua Project, 68 of the 70 people groups in Afghanistan are unreached. It is unreached for a reason, as it is extremely difficult for Christians to live there and even more challenging to reach someone for Christ. Yet, Jesus also died for these people, who are hard-pressed on every side at the moment and need Him—the Provider, Prince of Peace, and Protector—more than ever.
The Ruling Taliban
The Taliban is an ultraconservative political and religious military group that emerged in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s following the withdrawal of Soviet troops and the collapse of Afghanistan’s communist regime. This new militia was formed with support from Pakistan and largely consisted of students (ṭālib) from the Pashtun areas of eastern and southern Afghanistan, educated in very conservative traditional Islamic schools. The Taliban ruled the country from the mid-1990s until 2001. During this time, women’s rights were severely restricted, and the Taliban regime was marked by repressive measures.
In 2001, after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the US government demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist group, which was based in Afghanistan. Upon the Taliban’s refusal, the United States and its allies drove the Taliban from power in December 2001 and established an Afghan government.
Both the Taliban and al-Qaeda relocated to nearby Pakistan, where they regrouped and waged war against the US and its allies for the next twenty years. The US-backed government developed schools, hospitals, and public facilities; girls were enrolled in secondary schools and universities again, and women re-entered the workforce.
Following the signing of the US-Taliban peace agreement in February 2020 and the subsequent withdrawal of US troops the next year, the Taliban quickly took over the country and, by August 2021, were in power. Within the first week, they banned girls over 12 years old from attending school again.
Humanitarian Crisis
- Food
The Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) for 2024 indicates that an estimated 23.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in the country. Food insecurity is rampant. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reports that acute malnutrition rates exceed emergency thresholds in 25 out of 34 Afghan provinces, with nearly half of children under five and a quarter of pregnant and breastfeeding women requiring urgent nutritional support.
Mothers are disproportionately affected, as they are typically the last to eat and consume the least. According to UNICEF, 41% of children in Afghanistan suffer from stunting—being small for their age—a common and largely irreversible effect of malnutrition. Despite the need for humanitarian assistance tripling from 2021 to 2023, the humanitarian response was only 20% funded by mid-2024 due to Western dissatisfaction with the Taliban regime and competing global needs, among other reasons.
- Displacement
Since the start of 2021, around 1.6 million Afghans have fled Afghanistan, mainly to Iran and Pakistan. Within the country, around 6.3 million people are displaced, primarily due to conflict, although natural disasters have also played a significant role.
Over the past year, Pakistan has repatriated more than 600,000 Afghan refugees who had been living in the country without the necessary documentation, some for many years (see INcontext article of 11 July 2024). In a nation where unemployment rates have soared over the past three years and food insecurity is alarming, options for these refugees are extremely limited.
- Natural disasters
More than 60% of Afghanistan’s terrain is mountainous, making landslides common. These are often triggered by earthquakes and heavy rainfall, which can also lead to flooding.
Three consecutive years of drought were followed this year by multiple earthquakes; severe flooding occurred in March, and flash floods in April affected 32 of the country’s 34 provinces. The already beleaguered population of Afghanistan was hard hit by these disasters, with hundreds of lives lost, thousands of homes destroyed, and over 2,500 hectares of agricultural land laid waste. Infrastructure was damaged, further complicating the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Women and girls
Since the Taliban regime seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August 2021, the country’s record on women’s rights has been among the worst, if not the worst, in the world. Despite promises to “uphold women’s rights in line with Sharia law,” the Taliban have actively suppressed these rights. This is a significant reason why Afghanistan is regarded as a pariah state and why humanitarian aid to the country has been so severely affected.
It appears, however, that the Taliban regime, under its leader, Emir Hibatullah Akhundzada, has no intention of changing these laws; on the contrary, they continue to impose additional restrictions.
The Taliban has issued at least 70 decrees and directives targeting the rights of women. Here are some of the restrictions imposed on women and girls:
- Women are not allowed to travel without a male guardian.
- Women must wear a full veil whenever outside.
- Girls are prohibited from attending secondary school or university. (According to US news outlets, secret schools—some posing as religious institutions—provide limited opportunities for girls to learn.)
- Women are barred from parks, gyms, and sports clubs.
- Women are prohibited from working in the public sector, except in healthcare and primary education.
- Women cannot work for NGOs or the UN within Afghanistan. (This ban has resulted in the suspension of 89 humanitarian projects and the closure of facilities.)
- Women are prohibited from operating beauty salons. (In July 2023, the Taliban closed all beauty salons, impacting approximately 60,000 women-owned businesses.)
- Women are not allowed to speak in public. In August 2024, the Taliban codified this restriction and introduced further measures, including a prohibition on women’s voices being heard in public.
- While not officially banned, the use of contraception is actively restricted in many cities across the country.
Less than 23% of women in Afghanistan can read, compared to just over half of men. Overall, only one in three people in the country are literate, making Afghanistan’s literacy rate the fourth lowest in the world, behind Chad, Mali, and South Sudan (2024 statistics, according to World Population Review).
Multiple UN agencies have reported an increase in child and forced marriages, as well as gender-based violence, over the past three years. The Taliban has progressively dismantled institutions that supported survivors of gender-based violence under the former government, leaving survivors reliant on Sharia law (Islamic law) and vulnerable to further abuse. There have been widespread reports of women and girls suffering from depression, in some cases leading to suicide.
The Church
Christians in Afghanistan are the epitome of the “sheep among wolves” that Jesus speaks about in Matthew 10:16. According to the Taliban, there are no Christians left in Afghanistan; however, the Afghan remnant Church operates underground. Afghan Christians keep their faith secret, worshipping in homes or meeting discreetly in cars.
Bibles are primarily available in digital formats, as access to printed Bibles is extremely limited, and owning one is incredibly dangerous. Fear is pervasive among Christians, as they do not know whom to trust, and the Taliban is particularly determined to eliminate them. Beatings, torture, and kidnappings are routine, and evangelism almost certainly carries a death sentence.
Christian converts from Islam are often killed by family members or other radicalised Muslims. One believer shared with Voice of the Martyrs radio that he had to delete the Bible from his phone when his workplace was searched. When he later redownloaded it, he was overjoyed to discover that the new version included an audio option. This feature now allows his family, many of whom are illiterate, to listen to the Bible on their phones.
In Afghanistan’s rural mountainous regions, people are hungry for the Gospel, prompting some Afghan believers to make regular trips on foot to these remote villages to preach and mentor new converts. Increasing poverty rates and Taliban brutality have left many Afghan Muslims disillusioned with their faith, causing their hearts and minds to open to Christianity. Despite the dangers, Christians continue to reach out to them.
Lana Silk, the American CEO of Transform Iran (who also serves the Afghan church), says on persecution.org: “There are secret prayer meetings and teaching sessions; people are giving each other encouragement and hope. They are reaching out and evangelising the lost around them, which is incredibly courageous, considering the implications.”
Technology is a great asset to the underground Church. Many Afghan believers now living outside Afghanistan are using it to minister to their fellow countrymen. Inspiring testimonies, words of encouragement, and teachings have played a vital role in strengthening Afghan believers. Dozens of ministries on these platforms report an openness to the Gospel from people inside the country, some of whom have shared having had dreams and visions of Jesus.
Hannah Nation, managing director of the Center for House Church Theology, wrote in Christianity Today in September 2021 that roughly seventy years ago, the global Church witnessed what was thought to be the end of the Church in China. Similar to what we are witnessing today in Afghanistan, citizens (and especially Christians) scrambled to leave China after the Chinese Communist Party took over. The Chinese government persecuted the Church in the years that followed, and thousands abandoned Christ. However, there was a generation of men and women who laid down their lives as the seeds of the Chinese Church today. They remained faithful both as individuals and as the Corporate Church. When the time was right, the Gospel spread across the country in such a way that today the Chinese Church is the largest Christian community in the world.
She adds: “Engaging with the suffering Church—from Afghanistan to China—has discipled my own heart. We must not let our own fear of suffering dictate the narrative, but rather we must be discipled by those in Afghanistan, China, and elsewhere. I’ve found that I pray because I feel distressed at what I see and read, and not out of true conviction that my prayers are part of the objective work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. I have been learning to see my prayers as my weapon against the forces of evil in this world.”
Ms. Nation emphasises that if our view of Church history requires friendly rulers and personal freedom for the Church to not only survive but grow, then we have a faulty view of God’s relationship with His Church. “I’m praying for their empowerment to be a strong and bold Church in the coming decades so that in 50 years, we might be amazed to discover the largest Church in the Muslim world in Afghanistan. I am praying that their love for Afghanistan and their people will compel them.”
Please join us in prayer for the following:
- That the seed of the martyrs of Afghan believers will yield a supernatural harvest for the underground Church in Afghanistan, and that the Holy Spirit will guide, protect, and strengthen the believers.
- For Christians worldwide to be raised up to intercede, stand alongside believers in Afghanistan, and pray for the Taliban.
- For sufficient humanitarian aid to be restored to Afghanistan so that people can access food and employment.
- For protection, education, and job opportunities for the women and girls of Afghanistan.
