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Kunduz war-affected woman suffers from mental illness

Kunduz war-affected woman suffers from mental illness

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27 Nov 2016 - 15:26
Kunduz war-affected woman suffers from mental illness
author avatar
27 Nov 2016 - 15:26

MAZAR-I-SHARIF (Pajhwok): A war-affected woman has developed mental illness owing to social and economic problems in northern Kunduz province.

Mahria Khal, 45, whose husband was killed in recent clashes in Kunduz, is now displaced to Maza-i-Sharif, the capital of northern Balkh province.

She has no safe place for living and she lives with her 12 years old son in the open or on roads in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Khal was shifted from a road on Saturday to the mental health section of Mazar-i-Sharif Civil Hospital and she is currently under treatment.

This reporter visited the hospital and tried to talk to the woman, but she could not speak due to her illness. Khal whose hairs have turned white could not express her bitter life of current and the past.

She was silent about some questions, but responded irrelevantly to others. When asked why she lived on roads, Khal said: “If I receive enough bread, I would have no more problems.”

However, her 12 years old son, Firoz, narrated many stories about her mother. Sitting beside his mother’s bed, Firoz said his father was a guard at an office in Kunduz.

His father was killed during recent Taliban attacks on Kunduz city and they fled to Mazar-i-Sharif to reside here.

“We have no relatives or friends in Mazar-i-Sharif, we had no idea where to go and what to do,” he said. “My mother found a bed sheet and placed it on the side of a road in Rawza area. We covered the sheet with old clothes and things to keep us warm,” he added.

Firzo said they spent about one and a half months on the roadside and people paid them little money like beggars.

About other members of their family, he said one of his brothers had gone to Iran for work several years ago. They had no information about his brother’s whereabouts in Iran, he said.

To questions about their future, Firoz remained silent and could not say anything. However, he was hopeful about his mother treatment in the hospital.

Mohammad Ashraf Rawan, a doctor at the mental health section, said Mahria Khal was brought the hospital by security personnel on Saturday. He said the woman at first was in serious condition and could not even talk.

Rawan called her illness Schizophreniform disorder — a mental disorder diagnosed when symptoms of schizophrenia are present for a significant portion of the time within a one-month period, but signs of disruption are not present for the full six months required for the diagnosis of schizophrenia.

People who face many problems develop such diseases, the doctor said and hoped Mahria Khal’s health would be recovered soon.

mds/ma

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