Gender Alert 2: Impacts of military hostilities between Afghanistan and Pakistan on women and girls

This is the second Gender Alert to analyse the impact of recent hostilities on women and girls in eastern Afghanistan, which have escalated since February into sustained cross-border airstrikes, shelling, drone attacks and ground clashes, impacting at least ten provinces.

This Gender Alert contains more detailed analysis of the effect on the daily lives of women and girls and their more urgent immediate and longer-term needs. Just over half of the 90,000 people affected are women and girls and almost one-in-ten affected households are women-headed. These escala­tions are unfolding in an already dire context for Afghan women and girls, whose movement, livelihood opportu­nities, participation in public life, and presence in public spaces are systematically restricted by decrees and laws issued by the de facto authorities and social pressure.

The Alert finds that women are experiencing a range of impacts, including displacement, housing damage and loss of livelihoods. Additional barriers – including restrictions on women’s movement – are further compounding economic and social pressures.

The Alert was developed by Afghanistan’s Operational Gender Coordination Group, in collaboration with the Regional Operational Coordination Group for the Eastern Region.