‘I begged them, my daughter was dying’: how Taliban male escort rules are killing mothers and babies

A female health worker, accompanied by her mahram or male chaperone, arrives at work in a snowstorm in the province of Zabul, south Afghanistan. Photograph: Kiana Hayeri/Kiana Hayeri for Carmignac Foundation

It was the middle of the night when Zarin Gul realised that her daughter Nasrin had to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Her daughter’s husband was away working in Iran and the two women were alone with Nasrin’s seven children when Nasrin, heavily pregnant with her eighth child, began experiencing severe pains.

Gul helped Nasrin into a rickshaw and they set off into the night. Holding her daughter’s hand as the rickshaw jolted over the dirt road, Gul says she prayed they would not encounter a Taliban checkpoint.