The Taliban are accused of abandoning women in Afghanistan to ‘die under rubble’ after being hit by three catastrophic earthquakes within one week.

The initial major quake occurred shortly after midnight on Monday at a shallow depth of only six miles, leading to over 2,200 fatalities, destroying villages, and leaving many trapped beneath the debris.

Human Appeal reported that the earthquake affected at least five provinces, with the Kunar and Nangarhar regions experiencing the most severe impact; these areas are among the most remote and impoverished in the nation.

On Tuesday, a 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan, causing a temporary pause in rescue operations. This was followed by a third quake of 5.6 magnitude on Thursday night.

On Friday, two significant aftershocks hit Afghanistan’s eastern region within 12 hours of each other, raising fears of additional fatalities and destruction.

According to reports from survivors and rescuers, many women were intentionally excluded from the rescue efforts following the initial quake due to strict religious practices preventing men from making physical contact with them.

Taliban-enforced cultural norms have barred female rescuers, while male rescuers have, in some cases, even been prevented from touching the women, an anonymous survivor has reportedly told The Telegraph.

These arbitrary rules, community health workers fear, could lead to a disproportionately higher death toll among women, while the Afghan Red Crescent Society warned on Tuesday that death tolls are set to rise. 

An anonymous female survivor in another nearby region claimed they recalled witnessing several women being deliberately left to die by rescue workers, telling the Telegraph: ‘They pushed us aside and took men for treatment. We were left bleeding. No one offered to help.’ 

In the small village of Devgarh, one rescuer told to the the publication that they had been allegedly told not to ‘speak with the women or try to contact them because it’s prohibited’, adding that even touching a dead woman would ‘have consequences’. 

The majority of casualties have been reported in Kunar, where many live in steep river valleys separated by high mountains. 2,205 people died and 3,640 were injured, according to a Taliban government toll.

A senior journalist, speaking on the condition of anonymity, claimed to the publication that the Taliban had ‘not allowed women’ to take part in the widespread rescue effort in Kunar. 

The only exception to such rule was, they alleged, just a select few provided by UN aid agencies, operating on the ground. 

It comes after the UN said on Tuesday that the disaster on Sunday could impact ‘hundreds of thousands’. 

Indrika Ratwatte, its human coordinator in the country, said: ‘We think potentially the impacted individuals would go up to almost into the hundreds of thousands.

He added: ‘The numbers are definitely going to increase and said: ‘There’s no question that the casualty rate is going to be rather exponential.’

 In a media briefing on Tuesday, he warned that rescuers are scrambling in a ‘race against time’ to reach the mountainous and remote area hit.

‘We cannot afford to forget the people of Afghanistan who are facing multiple crises, multiple shocks, and the resilience of the communities has been saturated,’ Ratwatte said, while urging the international community to step forward.

‘These are life and death decisions while we race against time to reach people,’ he said.

Taliban spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat, who provided the updated casualty figures, also said that rescue and search efforts remained ‘ongoing’.

‘Tents have been set up for people, and the delivery of first aid and emergency supplies is ongoing,’ he said.

The rough terrain is hindering relief efforts. Taliban authorities have deployed helicopters and airdropped army commandos to help survivors.

Aid workers were reported to have been walking for hours to reach villages cut off by landslides and rockfall. Funding cuts are also having an impact on the response.

The Norwegian refugee council said it had fewer than 450 staff in Afghanistan whereas it had 1,100 in 2023, the date of the last major quake in the country.

 The council had only one warehouse remaining and no emergency stock.

‘We will need to purchase items once we get the funding but this will take potentially weeks and people are in need now,’ Maisam Shafiey, communications and advocacy adviser for the council in Afghanistan, said.

‘We have only 100,000 US dollars (£74,000) available to support emergency response efforts. This leaves an immediate funding gap of 1.9 million dollars (£1.4 million).’

Humanitarian organisations have called the latest disaster a crisis within a crisis, with the nation already struggling with the impact of climate change, particularly drought, a weak economy alongside the return of some two million Afghans from neighbouring countries.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) warned that the quake in Afghanistan was likely to ‘dwarf’ the scale of the humanitarian needs caused by the Herat earthquakes of 2023, which the Taliban said killed some 4,000 people.

Human Appeal UK, a British humanitarian charity based in Manchester, said in a statement on Thursday that it was launching an emergency response initiative aiming to reach 17,500 people with aid.

Hameed Al-Asaly, CEO of Human Appeal UK, said: ‘Some of the most vulnerable and remote areas of Afghanistan have been devastated by this earthquake, with many lives lost and homes destroyed.

‘Our teams are working tirelessly to deliver life-saving aid on the ground. We will continue to adapt our response to meet the evolving needs of affected communities—both now and in the months ahead.

 ‘We urge the public to support this vital effort as survivors begin the long road to recovery.’

With entire villages destroyed and the death toll expected to rise, the need for aid is increasingly critical, the charity explained.

Landslides triggered by the aftershocks have blocked key roads, isolating communities and overwhelming local hospitals.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Smith, British Red Cross Country Manager for Afghanistan, said on Monday: ‘The location of this earthquake is very remote and mountainous, which makes rescue efforts particularly challenging.

‘There have been repeated aftershocks and more are feared in the coming days. Floods and landslides over the weekend have also affected rescue efforts.

‘Sadly, people will be displaced for a long period into the winter as homes have been destroyed.

‘The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is delivering vital aid and will continue to do so for as long as people need us.’

The United Nations warned that thousands of children are at risk. UNICEF said it was rushing medicine, tents, tarpaulins, warm clothes, and hygiene supplies, including soap, detergent, sanitary pads, towels, and water buckets, to the disaster zone.

Taliban fighters have been deployed to secure the area and assist with relief efforts, as the disaster piles more pressure on a government already crippled by sanctions, shrinking foreign aid, and the mass deportation of Afghans from neighbouring countries.

The World Health Organisation previously declared that the impact of ‘damaged roads, ongoing aftershocks, and remote locations of many villages’ could ‘severely impede the delivery of aid.

They added: ‘The pre-earthquake fragility of the health system means local capacity is overwhelmed, creating total dependence on external actors.’ 

On Tuesday, the epicentre of the sizeable quake was 21 miles northeast of Jalalabad city in Nangarhar province, according to the USGS.

Then, the country’s astern region was hit again on Thursday by a magnitude 6.2 earthquake, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) reported.

Experts said the earthquake struck at a depth of 10km in a region lying 20 miles outside of Jalalabad, while tremors were reportedly felt in India and Pakistan.