Where women and girls face restricted movement, houses collapsing under heavy rainfall may pose gendered safety risks

Women have numbered among the dead as multiple roofs have collapsed under heavy rainfall in Afghanistan. The torrential rain of recent weeks comes after repeated periods of drought, which, in addition to draining groundwater supplies, can leave dry lands less able to absorb sudden downpours, triggering flash floods.

Since at least March 26, extreme precipitation has caused flooding and landslides. As of April 30, hundreds of people have been killed and injured, while between about 60,000 and 74,000 have been impacted, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, with health facilities, schools, water systems, and agricultural production also affected.

Reuters reported early last month that 1,100 homes had been destroyed. A 5.9-magnitude earthquake in the region complicated rescue efforts and recovery activities while ostensibly compounding structural damage.

According to the Associated Press, 13 people were killed "when torrential rainfall caused the roofs of houses to collapse overnight in eastern Afghanistan" in early April. In late April, the Kabul Tribune reported that one woman and four children were killed in a roof collapse in the western part of the country. Last week, KabulNow reported that Taliban officials said a 15-year-old girl and a 22-year-old woman were killed "after the roof of a mud house collapsed following heavy rainfall" in central Afghanistan.

Multiple outlets in the region have reported fatalities following other collapses after heavy rains, with homes often described as "mud-built." It's not the first time that such structures in the region have collapsed under extreme conditions. 

In January, the AP reported that a house in Jalalabad collapsed under heavy precipitation, killing a mother and six children while injuring the father. Together with not infrequent earthquakes, ongoing conflict, "poor infrastructure, a struggling economy, deforestation, and the intensifying effects of climate change" have exacerbated the impacts of extreme weather events, according to the outlet, "particularly in remote areas where many homes are built of mud and offer limited protection against sudden deluges or heavy snowfall."

Certainly, not only women and children have been killed in such home collapses. Meanwhile, where the movements of women and girls are often limited — and often to domestic spaces — and where those domestic spaces are structurally and environmentally vulnerable, the safety risks of home collapse may be felt disproportionately. 

According to a DW News report on the impacts of a 6.0-magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan in 2025, the U.N. had noted that "the death toll among women and girls is often higher as they're more likely to be confined to the home when disaster strikes because of the restrictions placed on their movements by the Taliban."

In a 2023 news release responding to quakes that October, the U.N. said that "the death toll and injuries have been higher among women and girls, who were more likely than men to be in their homes at the time of the earthquakes." According to the U.N., women constituted 58% of adults killed in the earthquakes, 60% of those injured, and 61% of those missing.

As for the structural impacts of heavy precipitation, efforts to improve the resilience of rural and mud-built homes are set to become increasingly critical as rising global temperatures fuel extreme weather. While political tensions can complicate such efforts, communities and agencies are working to improve climate resilience in the region. 

In recent years, for example, the International Organization for Migration reportedly helped to build a flood protection wall in Herat. The IOM and other groups have also worked to improve early warning systems to enable residents to escape dangerous settings before disaster strikes. Other solutions might include something similar to the flood-resistant bamboo homes designed by Yasmeen Lari in nearby Pakistan.

Kirsten Krueger contributed to the editing of this article.