‘Conspiracy to control Muslim population’, Taliban ban contraceptives

Taliban fighters have stopped the sale of contraceptives in two of Afghanistan’s main cities, claiming their use by women is a western conspiracy to control the Muslim population, according to a media report. The Taliban has been going door to door, threatening midwives and ordering pharmacies to clear their shelves of all birth control medicines and devices, The Guardian reported. “They came to my store twice with guns and threatened me not to keep contraceptive pills for sale. They are regularly checking every pharmacy in Kabul and we have stopped selling the products,” said one store owner in the city. A veteran midwife, who did not want to be named, said she had been threatened several times. She said she was told by a Taliban commander: “You are not allowed to go outside and promote the western concept of controlling population and this is unnecessary work.” Other pharmacists in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif confirmed that they have been ordered not to stock any birth control medicines, The Guardian reported. “Items such as birth control pills and Depo-Provera injections are not allowed to be kept in the pharmacy since the start of this month, and we are too afraid to sell the existing stock,” another shop owner in Kabul said. Taliban fighters patrolling in the streets in Kabul told sources that “contraceptive use and family planning is a western agenda”, The Guardian reported. Shabnam Nasimi, an Afghan-born social activist in the UK, said: “The Taliban’s control not only over women’s human right to work and study, but now also over their bodies, is outrageous.”