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Introduction
In 2025, Afghanistan experienced two overlapping earthquakes. This Gender Analysis examines how gender shaped the needs, risks, and access to assistance across the earthquake recovery and response in the eastern and northern regions of Afghanistan.
On 31 August 2025, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan along the Nangarhar–Kunar corridor.
The shallow depth amplifed impacts across Kunar, Laghman, Nangarhar, and Nuristan provinces and caused widespread damage to housing and infrastructure. The earthquake affected 29 districts—many remote and hard to reach—and was followed by repeated aftershocks for weeks, complicating aid delivery and prolonging displacement and psychological distress.
Multi-Sector Rapid Assessment Form (MSRAF) data collected between 1–30 September 2025 from villages in Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar provinces indicate that women and girls were disproportionately affected: 29,109 women and girls were affected compared to 27,088 men and boys. Among the reported fatalities, 1,031 were female and 961 were male; among the injured, 54 per cent were female and 46 per cent were male. MSRAF further recorded 421 women-headed households and 1066 pregnant women among the affected population.1 Recovery-oriented analysis highlights that women and girls—particularly women-headed households —face disproportionate recovery risks, including barriers to accessing durable shelter, essential services, and recovery assistance, underscoring the need for gender-responsive recovery approaches as recovery efforts scale.
On 3 November 2025, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck northern Afghanistan near Mazar-i-Sharif/ Khulm, with impacts reported across Samangan, Balkh, Baghlan, Jawzjan, Kunduz, and Sari Pul provinces. Ongoing seismic risk shaped population movements, constrained repair efforts, and complicated assessments and response activities.