The root causes of the alarming health indicators in Afghanistan are poverty and the two decades of warfare that stalled economic and social progress and led to destruction of livelihoods and high levels of disability. This situation has had a particularly negative impact on the health and mortality of women and children, but there does not appear to be any evidence of deliberate gender-based discrimination within the health sector - the exception being the Taliban insisting on separate medical facilities for males and females, which increased the de facto differences in service provision to men and women. .
