Feeding Birds Amid a Humanitarian Catastrophe: Wave of Criticism Against the Taliban.
As international organizations warn that Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis has reached its “highest level”, some Taliban members claim that, on orders from their leadership, they have distributed food for birds in various parts of the country following recent snowfall.
Images circulated by Taliban forces have triggered a wave of criticism, with observers describing the move as a propaganda effort aimed at obscuring the scale of Afghanistan’s humanitarian disaster.
These claims emerge at a time when, under Taliban rule, millions of Afghans live below the extreme poverty line, while food insecurity, unemployment, and harsh winter conditions threaten the survival of large segments of the population.
International organizations stress that Taliban policies particularly the exclusion of women and girls from work and education have directly intensified poverty, hunger, and the collapse of household livelihoods, turning Afghanistan into one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crisis zones.
Critics argue that while the Taliban speak of “caring for birds,” thousands of Afghans are forced to flee the country due to widespread poverty, social repression, and fear of security reprisals.
They emphasize that women and girls are effectively under house arrest, with many describing their condition as “living in a prison” a reality that human rights organizations view as a stark symbol of the Taliban’s misplaced priorities amid a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe.
