MASHHAD, The Islamic Republic of Iran – ”My mother is in dire need of eye surgery, but the cost of treatment is beyond our means,” said Zahra*, a refugee from Afghanistan. “Both my sister and I work hard to support our family, but we barely manage to meet our basic needs.”

For several decades, millions of people have been forced to flee their homes in Afghanistan due to the country’s political and economic instability, repeated outbreaks of conflict, and – following the Taliban’s ascension to power in 2021 – drastic restrictions on the rights of women and girls. Zahra is one of them; she left Afghanistan in 1979 for the Islamic Republic of Iran, which for more than four decades has hosted one of the largest refugee populations in the world.

Refugees everywhere – and especially women and girls – struggle with particular health challenges. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, Afghan women refugees have higher rates of complications during pregnancy, with many finding it difficult to access any kind of reproductive health care.